<p>My son has narrowed it down to two colleges (both out of state publics in different states) - one from which he has received a full ride offer and one that has offered basically a half ride with a specified dollar amount. The full ride covers fees, tuition, room and board no matter what the increase in costs. He would prefer to attend the college offering the lower amount. However, when the costs increase his scholarship won't. With states having budget crunches, and inflation being unpredictable as well, I don't know what to expect. Any wisdom or insights?</p>
<p>Historically college costs have increased at a rate of about 6-7% each year.</p>
<p>We just were notified about a 3% increase</p>
<p>S’s school is increasing fees by 3.81% next year. His merit scholarship will stay the same.</p>
<p>That information is helpful, but I am more concerned about bigger increases if our country is hit with some huge type of inflation. I did some more research last night and the state the first college mentioned is located in actually is running in the black, so that was reassuring. The state the full ride college is in is talking budget cuts for colleges. I would hope and expect that they would both honor their scholarship commitments no matter what. It’s hard to know what to think. Barring some type of concrete expectations, I want to encourage him to go to the one he wants to go to. You can’t spend your life not taking risks.</p>
<p>I get so much insight here I wanted to see what you other parents thought.</p>
<p>Most states have big budget problems and I think that the best-case scenario is that they level-fund higher-ed. I think that many states are cutting higher-ed support though. I have a co-worker with a son at an OOS with about a 50% scholarship but it was for a specific dollar amount and prices have been rising quite a bit (I think double-digits last year). I guess that is similar to your situation.</p>
<p>There are lots of other considerations: quality of the department, student support (if you’re getting merit scholarships, you want to ensure that you can meet the requirements of the scholarships), distance from home, access to outside activities, availability of internships and jobs in the local area, availability of research jobs if he has interest there.</p>
<p>1 extra semester to graduate blows your entire savings. So make sure your S has a good handle on how to sequence his required courses, is willing to take that 9 am lab that nobody else will sign up for, and isn’t going to balk at taking classes on Friday’s (at many schools, the weekend parties begin Thursday night. Making Friday classes very unpopular.) An extra semester on your dime will hurt.</p>
<p>Here is a study on this topic.</p>
<p>[Free</a> By 50: Public College Cost Inflation 1980 to 2010](<a href=“http://www.freeby50.com/2010/02/public-college-cost-inflation-1980-to.html]Free”>Public College Cost Inflation 1980 to 2010 | Free By 50)</p>
<p>Some state schools, like many (all?) in Illinois, lock your tuition rate in at whatever you’re paying freshman year; only new incoming students have to pay the increased rates.</p>
<p>Yes. At least the Business program stated as such.</p>
<p>I could be wrong but I think some state schools will be trying to close any funding gap by raising OOS more, especially if they percieve OOS to be a bargain.</p>
<p>colleges should be holding cost steady in this economy…pipe dream…I know</p>
<p>There are a couple sources with data that I found useful:
- this database can give you COA figures from 2002-2010 for a group of colleges that you select - from that data, you can see what increases historically a specific college has been comfortable making - doesn’t take into account any additional recessionary forces of course but…
[IPEDS</a> Data Center](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/Default.aspx]IPEDS”>Use The Data)
Don’t laugh, but I took that data down into excel and did a trend going forward 4 yrs. PM me if you want to know how to do that, not difficult really, just excel.</p>
<p>2) from our friends at collegeboard - <a href=“Trends in Higher Education – College Board Research”>Trends in Higher Education – College Board Research;
just shows you overall public vs private increases</p>
<p>I’m in the same boat, with 4 out of state publics and 2 privates (and one undesireable instate public which is where he might end up) the large scholarship at the private sounds impressive but when their standard increase in tuition is higher than the avg private increase, and the scholarship is static? It is insane that we are buying a 4 yr product here and don’t even have the predicted costs for yr. 1 yet?</p>
<p>What I know is some states are much less dependent on state aid to hold them together. Some states will increase OOS to balance their budgets. Some might increase instate tuition more than increases in OOS tuition (belief that they can’t increase as much without losing those “customers”). And we, the consumer, is supposed to just plunk our credit card on that level of specificity. Wow.</p>
<p>You can’t predict. I have a friend whose daughter went to University of Charleston as a OOS student. The costs were quite reasonable when she started there. In her junior year the school decided to sharply increase the OOS premium for the school tuition. I don’t remember how the phased it in for those students still there or if they got the brunt of it, but I do remember it happened. SUNYs a few years back did the same thing. You really can’t predict with the way state budgets are going to be slashed what will happen. The last thing on their minds is the predicament of those who are OOS kids going to the schools, when the legislators start slashing the budget and squeezing the schools.</p>
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<p>If you’re OOS, you have the big bucks anyways, right?</p>
<p>I would hope and expect that they would both honor their scholarship commitments no matter what.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of a school canceling the scholarships of current scholarship holders over budget woes. I think that might leave them vulnerable for lawsuits.</p>
<p>Schools that keep tuition steady can still raise other costs…such as: room, meal plans, general fees, course fees, etc. So, sometimes when tuition is held “steady,” there are other costs that rise at a higher than normal rate. </p>
<p>You have to expect that all costs…tuition, room, board, fees, etc may all go up every year.</p>
<p>Why does your son like one school over the other? What are the two schools?</p>
<p>Did your son eliminate any other schools that offered him a good scholarship?</p>
<p>*We just were notified about a 3% increase *</p>
<p>Speaking in terms of % may not tell us much. A 3% increase on a large base (say $40k tuition) may be a large overall amount than a 5% increase on a smaller base (say $8k tuition).</p>
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<p>Why? We’ve had substantial deflation in many areas of the economy in the last three years.</p>
<p>*> You have to expect that all costs…tuition, room, board, fees, etc may all go up </p>
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<p>Why? We’ve had substantial deflation in many areas of the economy in the last three years. *</p>
<p>Because the costs associated with running a campus have not gone down. Colleges are having to spend greater amounts for campus security (more patrolling… labor…expensive), additional electronic security for buildings and dorms, “blue lights/phones” installed everywhere - with a guaranteed response time, and a whole host of things that are more expensive. Seriously, simply trying to keep our campuses safe has added significantly to college costs. </p>
<p>And…giving faculty and staff modest raises causes college costs to rise. Food costs have risen. Support programs for students are expensive…free tutoring, free counseling, health services, career counseling, etc, etc.</p>
<p>actually, mom2, most expenditures on campuses (especially state run institutions) have decreased because they have been given very little funding. In fact at my (public) university there has been a salary freeze for professors for two years. </p>
<p>Anyways, this gets to my main point. Usually there is a small increase in total coa each year (figures mentioned thus far in the thread, 3-6% sound about right) but more often then not the result of bad economic times is to cut funding significantly rather than to raise tuition.</p>
<p>I would not be worried about paying exorbitant prices, however as Blossom pointed out make sure your S/D gets the classes they need (even if they’re t 8am!). Classes are typically offered less frequently when budgets are cut, so stay on top of graduation requirements…</p>
<p>I would be extremely cautious trusting the colors on this map, as we don’t know how they are calculated. With that said, there is some data here that might be useful. I’m honestly not sure how I would interpret these specific stats, but maybe someone else can lend a hand:
[Most</a> Public Colleges Face Budget Cut Threats in 2011 - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2010/07/12/most-public-colleges-face-budget-cut-threats-in-2011]Most”>http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2010/07/12/most-public-colleges-face-budget-cut-threats-in-2011)</p>