As any parent with a child in college will tell you, the cost of higher education has skyrocketed over recent decades and has become unbearable for American families. According to FinAid.org, tuition inflation has been double the general inflation rate in recent decades. College Board recently reported that public university tuition and fees are growing at a slightly higher rate than private colleges, but let’s face it, the type of institution with the worst sticker shock is still the private four-year college or university.
For the 2011-12 year, the total average private school cost (tuition, fees, room and board) was $38,589, versus public school total costs of $17,131 (in-state) and $29,657 (out-of-state). And plenty of private institutions cost more than $50K annually, a price tag of almost a quarter of a million bucks for your kid to graduate from college.
In a rational, free-market world, paying $156K ($39 x 4) for four years at a private institution versus $68K at an in-state public school should buy $88K more of some kind of educational utility. (Something more than a bumper sticker to impress the family next door!) What kind of extra benefits should a consumer look for in a private college or university that might justify paying almost a hundred grand more over the course of four years?
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At a recent lunch with “mom friends” from my son’s former high school, a mother of both a college grad and high school senior asked if I would write a blog post about the differences between the two rites of passage of high school and college commencement. I promised her I would, as soon as my son graduated from college and I could compare both experiences.
