College Costs Keep Rising

October 20th, 2009

Car companies slash prices. Clothing designers offer discounts. Restaurants offer two-for-one deals. It seems that when it comes to spending your hard-earned money, there are a lot of deals out there to help you save more.

Except, of course, when it comes to college.

Here’s something you’ll never see: Bachelor’s Degree ½ off! Or: Buy A Degree and Get a Master’s for Free! In fact, colleges are doing the exact opposite of slashing prices—they keep on raising them. And because students recognize the value of a college education, they’ll pay the price—however high it might go.

The Washington Post reported today that public universities raised their fees by 6.5 percent and private schools upped theirs by 4.4 percent. Granted, colleges are allowed to accommodate for inflation, and a degree from a public college is still a great bargain at twice the price, but that doesn’t do anything to eliminate the sting of these increases.

Unless you’ve got the cash in the bank to cover your whole college bill in the first place, students rarely pay tuition in its entirety. Scholarships, grants, and other financial awards do their part to chip away at the monstrous debt, but most students have resigned themselves to the fact that they will have monthly loan payments for years after graduation.

Aside from winning the lottery or being adopted by Madonna, there’s not much else you can do to avoid the cost of higher ed. Some schools are taking pity on their students and are introducing three-year degree options, but others, like Harvard, will always have a mile-long wait list no matter how high the price goes—and it will continue to go higher.

Has the rising price of college made you rethink your academic goals? Let us know.

–Barbara Bellesi

Entry Filed under: Advice, Financial Aid, News