College Tuitions Continue to Skyrocket

By Katelyn Hayes   

The landscape of American colleges today is very different from the college campuses of the 1980s. While traditions like Saturday tailgating parties before the big game, late-night cram-sessions and toga parties remain, the cost of soaking up these college-aged rights of passage has skyrocketed. Besides an additional 13.5 million estimated students enrolled in the country’s colleges and universities, today’s projected 18.4 million college-bound students will pay more than double what it cost their parents to earn a degree 25 years ago.¹ According to a new report from the National Center for Public Policy on Higher Education, the average cost of college tuition, adjusted for inflation, increased 150 percent from 1982 to 2007.²

More money, less funds

Over the last 10 years alone, tuitions at public four-year institutions have increased 4.2 percent per year, adjusted for inflation. In dollars, the average cost to attend a private four-year school has gone from $9,903 in 1979 to $25,143 in 2008.³ In addition, after years of double-digit growth, private loan volume decreased in 2007-08 by one percent, or $173 million, to $19.1 billion in 2007 dollars even before the credit crunch set in⁴ — making it that much harder for potential students to secure the funding to afford an education and enjoy all those accompanying college memories.

Students still aiming for higher education

Rising college costs, less private loan availability and stiffer federally-funded student loan competition amidst a full-blown recession and crushing credit crunch are not deterring the high school class of 2008 from setting their sights on a college education. In fact, the Educational Testing Service saw an eight percent increase in the amount of class of 2008 SAT^® test-takers compared with five years earlier.⁵

But there is hope for students unable to secure private loans. While competition for federal student loans is tough —16 percent more students applied for federal grants in the first half of 2008 than in the same time period the year before⁶ — the amount of recipients actually rose by five percent to 5.4 million students in 2007-08 over the prior two years.⁴

Footnotes

¹ "Back to School: 2008-2009," U.S. Census Bureau, June 16, 2008

² "Measuring Up 2008: The National Report Card on Higher Education," The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

³ "College Enrollment Rate Increases, but Financial Challenges Bring Uncertainty," Population Reference Bureau, November 2008

⁴ "College Prices Increase in Step with Inflation," CollegeBoard.com, Oct. 29, 2008

⁵ "SAT^® Scores Stable as Record Numbers Take Test," CollegeBoard.com, Aug. 26, 2008

⁶ "Pell Grants Said to Face a Shortfall of $6 Billion,"  The New York Times, Sept. 17, 2008