Monday, October 22, 2007

US tuition costs

Not strictly conference related but in the news a lot today so thought I'd share it with you. The news item is - "concerns raised about the increase in tuition costs in the US as they rise above the rate of inflation". We hear about US tuition fees a lot, so I thought it might be interesting to share the following figures with you - they aren't all they might seem after all.

Ave tuition costs:
Private 4yr universities - $23,712 per year (up 6.3%)
Public 4yr universities - $6,135 per year (up 6.6%)
Public 2yr community colleges - $2,361 per year (up 4.2%)

1 comment:

Brian said...

The cost of public universities has always seemed quite reasonable to me compared to private ones. Keep in mind that you are limited to ones in your state only, or you have to pay out of state fees which are nearly as high as private costs in some cases.

Often in the US living and eating costs are included in the predicted costs per year (in some cases required costs), so that may explain why the costs you hear about are higher. For instance, at Duke you may pay $25,000 in tuition per year, and another $10,000+ for room and board. The one advantage of this is that the total cost of being a student can be wrapped up in financial aid packages, meaning students don't have to rely on large overdrafts alone.