The cost of college continues to rise, right?
not necessarily. New research indicates that students are paying significantly less to attend public universities than they did a decade ago. And tuition growth at private colleges has finally slowed after years of massive growth.
Data compiled by the nonprofit College Board shows the average student attending a state public university this year will face a tuition bill of $11,610, a 4% increase from a decade ago after taking into account inflation. is less. But the real savings lie in what the average student actually pays after receiving grants and financial aid. According to the data, it has fallen by 40% over the past decade, from $4,140 to $2,480 annually.
Lower costs mean less borrowing. Just under half of students attending the state’s public universities are graduating with some debt, down from 59% a decade ago, according to College Board data. And among those who did borrow, the average loan balance fell 17% to $27,100.
Meanwhile, tuition at private colleges continues to rise, but at a much slower pace. Even accounting for inflation, it has increased 4% over the past decade to an average of $43,350, according to the College Board. This is a big change from the previous two decades, when tuition increased by 68%.
The cost is falling as Americans question whether college is worth the price. Surveys show that Americans are increasingly skeptical about the value of degrees, and the percentage of high school graduates going to college has fallen to levels not seen in decades, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Yet research shows that, over time, there is a degree of benefit. According to research from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, Americans with a bachelor’s degree earn an average of $2.8 million over the course of their careers, which is 75% more than those with only a high school diploma.
covid effect
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a big factor in the cost cuts, said Jennifer Ma, executive research scientist at the College Board and lead author of the study.
“We know that during COVID, a lot of institutions — public and private — stopped offering tuition,” Ma said.
As states and the federal government responded to the pandemic, Ma said, they increased higher education funding, allowing colleges to reduce the cost of attendance. However, some of that money has expired, including an investment of federal pandemic aid that was mostly used up by the end of 2022.
Cost was a major consideration in Kai Mattinson’s decision to attend Northern Arizona University. It would have cost her about $39,000 a year to attend a public university, but discounts and scholarships brought that down to between $15,000 and $20,000 for the 22-year-old senior from Nevada.
“I originally wanted to go to the University of Arizona, but when it came to tuition and other costs, Northern Arizona University was the best choice,” said Mattinson, a physical education major who also serves as a long-term alternate. Local primary school.
Many institutions have attempted to limit cost increases. For example, Purdue University in Indiana has capped its annual in-state tuition at $9,992 for the past 13 years.
Mark Baker, president of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, said he was pleased to see the new data.
“Efforts by many states to increase investment in public universities and institutional efforts to control costs, combined with federal investments in Pell Grants, have increased college affordability and made significant progress in tackling student debt,” Baker said in a statement. Is it.”
The cost of attending public two-year community colleges has fallen more than 9% over the past decade, according to College Board data, roughly in line with federal data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Still, the cost remains steep for parents paying to enroll their children in out-of-state public universities or private colleges — in some cases, as much as $95,000 annually. However, many institutions offer significant discounts to the sticker price for middle- and low-income students.
Some private colleges are expanding their financial aid, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which announced in November that undergraduate students with family incomes under $200,000 will no longer need to pay any tuition starting in the fall. Will happen.
Other private colleges are offering tuition discounts as a marketing move in an increasingly difficult environment. They face a declining number of young adults and students who are more wary of signing up for large loans. Recruiting students is important for survival as operating costs increase. After temporary relief thanks to federal funding during the pandemic, many colleges have cut programs to keep costs under control.