<p>Right now, the Ivies and most other top schools are about $50,000 per year (excluding the UCs for in-staters), give or take a few thousands. Two years from now, will that number have gone up substantially? What about five years from now? Is it reasonable for me to expect the price to stay less than $60K per year for the next five years?</p>
<p>There are lots of great articles out there on this topic. Try this link.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.trends-collegeboard.com/college_pricing/pdf/2009_Trends_College_Pricing.pdf[/url]”>http://www.trends-collegeboard.com/college_pricing/pdf/2009_Trends_College_Pricing.pdf</a></p>
<p>With the global economy so strangely unstable lately, domestic as well, I would hate to hazard a guess. However, general trends show about 6% increase on average, each year. From there is is just some fun with your calculator.</p>
<p>Thanks for that pdf, it was interesting. It’s frustrating that it continues to steadily but surely climb. It’ll probably cost over $60K by the time I hit senior year for college. I shudder to think how much my seven-year-old cousin will have to pay eleven years down the road.</p>
<p>I never thought it would get this high. And it has. Some schools have a COA of $60K+ already when you are talking about their total number. I could not believe that my son’s college raised costs last year by 4%, given the economy and all the problems people are having. 4%, and they felt it was a favor to us. It was nothing unusual. Many school followed the same way.</p>
<p>4.9% increase this year. = (
Last year, before I attended, it was 2.99%
And my financial aid package did not change, therefore more loans!</p>
<p>This is discouraging. :(</p>
<p>My parents said no more than $10K contribution per year. I have to get into a school with great FA. Luckily, my stats are pretty decent so that most likely won’t be too big of a problem. :D</p>
<p>I took a look at some figures this week. The average cost for a private college in 1990 was around $12K, so even if parents had planned on saving double that amount back when we had our babies, we would still be short. Today, the average cost of a private college is reported to be around $35K, but none of the private schools my child looked at were that low. It’s not good news.</p>
<p>^Yeah.</p>
<p>The only ‘cheap’ school I’m applying to is my in-state flagship, LSU, which would cost about $18K per year if accepted.</p>
<p>Other than that, it’s all private schools averaging about $50K per year.</p>
<p>Remember in 1999, the NASDAQ was at 5000, in 2006 house prices went up 200%. Everyone calls it the stock market bubble and the housing bubble.</p>
<p>Could this is continuous rise in tuition not based on inflation be called a bubble??? If so, prices could come down or the amount of aid go up substantially.</p>
<p>Remember there were the experts claimed it was not a bubble and prices would keep increasing without stop. Again, the break may not happen soon enough for me, but it cannot go on at this rate.</p>
<p>Usually they go up by $1/2k per year. So in 2-3 years it would be nearly $55-56k</p>
<p>I know people hate the idea of government interfering with everything, but hopefully if these insane tuition increases keep happening something will pass that will put some kind of cap on tuition. Even the “cheaper” state schools are becoming too costly for some people 
I don’t understand how anyone can ask a college student to pay that much money! And that’s not even one flat cost- that’s per year! It’s horrifying!</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>My parents said no more than $10K contribution per year. I have to get into a school with great FA. Luckily, my stats are pretty decent so that most likely won’t be too big of a problem. *</p>
<p>I think you misunderstand how “great FA” works. FA isn’t based on what your parents say that they will pay, it’s based on what the SCHOOL says your family should pay.</p>
<p>A school with the very best FA may say that your family should pay $25k per year. Your “great stats” aren’t going to matter since at those schools, everyone has great stats.</p>
<p>So, unless you’ll be happy at LSU, I suggest that you also apply to a couple of financial safety schools - schools that will give you a lot of merit for your stats.</p>
<p>The amounts have gone up significantly even from when my first son went to college 10 years ago when we thought it was so expensive and should be stabilizing.</p>
<p>Same as the housing market. When the dirt hits the fan, watch out. I don’t see how this can continue. I think unless things change drastically for our economy, there are going to be record defaults on the loans, which may curtail those programs. Credit, in general, has been tightened alarady. Parents and students are not going to be able to afford the high cost, boarding colleges. IF the borrowing option is out, and they don’t have the money, they simply cannot go to those schools. More kids will be opting for the state school and schools that give enough merit/aid to make it possible. Those kids who need no financial aid will get a bigger advantage at those schools where the number of full pay applicants gets down to a critical level. Some schools are going to close. State schools are going to become even more selective. I think the economy will eventually address this issue.</p>
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<p>mom2collegekids - The annual income for my household is approximately $80K with low assets. Wouldn’t that qualify me for only $10K contribution per year at top schools? Or would it be considerably more than that?</p>
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<p>I’ve decided that, although schools like Rice and Yale would be wonderful, I’d be happy going to LSU. They have a great Honors College and I’d be able to go almost for free - so if no other schools offer me FA of the size I need, I will go there.</p>
<p>The annual income for my household is approximately $80K with low assets. Wouldn’t that qualify me for only $10K contribution per year at top schools? Or would it be considerably more than that?</p>
<p>Since the schools that “meet need” use CSS Profile and not just FAFSA, it is an unknown what they might say your family should pay.</p>
<p>Do you know what your FAFSA EFC would likely be?</p>
<p>According to an EFC calculator, your FAFSA EFC could be as high as $18,000. </p>
<p>When you say that an $80k income would only require your family to pay about $10k per year, your talking about a tiny number of schools…Harvard, Yale, and maybe Princeton and Stanford. Other top privates and ivies would likely expect more than $10k.</p>
<p>*I’d be happy going to LSU. They have a great Honors College and I’d be able to go almost for free - so if no other schools offer me FA of the size I need, I will go there.
*</p>
<p>That’s good. 
However, if I were you, I would still apply to one or two more schools that would give you big merit “just in case” you have second thoughts about LSU in the spring. Some kids no longer want to go to their safety school by the end of senior year of high school. By applying to a couple more financial safety schools, you would still have a choice if your top schools don’t work out.</p>
<p>What are your stats? Are you a likely NMSF?</p>
<p>Once you have your safeties in place, you can go to town on the other applications as long as you understand that you can only go to such schools if the money pans out as well as getting accepted. By looking at schools that really would want you, you can up your chances of getting a good aid package and/or merit money. But there is no guarantee things will pan out, so do have those financial/admission safety schools.</p>
<p>Cost of college especially in both private and public institution is twice the general inflation rate as a thumb rule</p>
<p>[FinAid</a> | Saving for College | Tuition Inflation](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Tuition Inflation - Finaid)</p>
<p>*A good rule of thumb is that tuition rates will increase at about twice the general inflation rate. During any 17-year period from 1958 to 2001, the average annual tuition inflation rate was between 6% and 9%, ranging from 1.2 times general inflation to 2.1 times general inflation. On average, tuition tends to increase about 8% per year. An 8% college inflation rate means that the cost of college doubles every nine years. For a baby born today, this means that college costs will be more than three times current rates when the child matriculates in college. This section of FinAid provides detailed information about the rate of increase of college tuition. *</p>
<p>There are several reasons why cost of college is going up at this rate
[ol]
[<em>]Colleges have created this marketing impression that a college education is worth more than a student pays for it. The top institutions charge premium price and other institutions follow suit.
[</em>]There is more demand in the top institutions then supply. Especially today there are many students from other countries willing to pay full rack rates for the prestige of an US degree. Hence there is no pressure to costs or prices.
[<em>]The US government aid system is broken. Universities get a lot of grant money but there is no requirement that a part of the money be used to subsidize undergraduate education. So the money is used to build up endowments, buildings, pay presidents large salaries etc. On the other hand grants and loans are given to students with low EFC’s without consideration towards the total costs. If the Government had rules that limited aid to students who went to schools that limited tuition, you would find different behavior. Or the government gave grants and loans to students subject to a maximum loan value i.e. Govt would give maximum loans of $40,000 (all types Stafford, Perkins, PLUS i.e. all loans guaranteed by they government) over 4 years, any other loans would be private loans and subject to bankruptcy laws. Or a radical idea, say 25% of all loans be guaranteed by the college and if the student cannot earn the money to pay that loan, then colleges have to write it off. Colleges would not be able to enroll many students unless they cut their costs.
[</em>]Lack of public-private partnerships. Most credits in a community college transfer only to the local state universities (there are some exceptions). You do not need a noble prize winner to teach some of the introductory subjects. Force schools to accept more community college credits and hence reduce overall cost
[/ol]</p>
<p>Without this, there is going to be crash some day, tuition cannot keep going up the way it has.</p>
<p>I would say also say that the demand for the latest whatever also drives the prices up. Colleges are constantly having to buy whatever the latest “state of the art” technology is so as to appear on the cutting edge.</p>
<p>Colleges also are having to substantially increase their budgets for safety. More campus police, more security cameras, more secure buildings and dorms, etc all add to the costs.</p>
<p>Colleges also have to sell more than academics as they compete for students…they have to sell a “lifestyle”…nice campus, nice rec centers, nice dorms, nice, nice, nice…all costs money.</p>
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<p>That is a good idea. My schools for merit were going to be the University of Michigan and Tulane (Tulane is in-state for me, last year’s valedictorian at my school got a full ride). Other than that, I was applying to Rice, Yale, and Stanford. And a few others, maybe. Since I’m unlikely to get into Yale or Staford, Rice would be my first choice in a heartbeat if the money issue worked out.</p>
<p>EDIT: Thanks everyone for your help, this has been very informative!</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>UMich can’t be an additional financial safety for you because it costs $50k per year and doesn’t have assured big merit. You might get $20k per year merit from them, BUT they won’t help an OOS student pay the rest, so your family would have a LOT more than $10k to pay.</p>
<p>Tulane will very likely give you a merit scholarship, but again, probably not enough to go there. I don’t think Tulane meets need, and will leave your parents with a lot more than $10k to pay.</p>
<p>For you to have a financial safety school in addition to LSU, then you need to apply to a school that you KNOW FOR SURE that you can afford because you KNOW FOR SURE that you will get BIG MERIT and/or aid that will leave your parents with $10k or less to pay.</p>
<p>Just because a school will give you some merit does not mean that it would be affordable. You would need ASSURED BIG MERIT for you to know that a school would be affordable. </p>
<p>What are your stats?
What was your PSAT? Are you a likely NMSF?</p>