What college will cost in 18 years

[Vladenschlutte]

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Back in the dark ages when I was in college, there was talk about how tuition would grow and no one would be able to afford college in 20 years and how the bubble would burst and something would have to be done, blah, blah, blah…well, it’s 20+ years later and yes costs have gone up but so have salaries and if you compare apples to apples and job to job from 20+ years ago to today, that ratio has been pretty constant over time. You can’t just look at the “average salary”, you have to look job to job so a middle management position at Company A in 1980 to a middle management position at Company A in 2012. When I was going off to college my Dad was making 45,000/year-very respectable salary for where we lived. That same job today pays 150,000–same job, same educational requirements, same company. The school I attended had a COA of $15,000. Our DD is looking at that same school and the COA is now $45,000. COA back in 1980 was 33% of my Dad’s gross, it would now be 30% of gross for that same exact job.

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<p>I can understand why you would want to compare average wage growth with tuition growth, but comparing on the case of one job and one college makes no sense. Even worse, you’re simply speculating at what the job would pay today. Why do you think average starting wage of college graduates over time vs. average cost of college over time is not an appropriate measure?</p>