Tuition is climbing at a faster clip than the availability of financial aid, putting a degree further out of reach for many Americans. Tuition and fees at private 4-year schools rose 4.4% in the current school year to $26,273, according to a survey released by the College Board Tuesday.

Charges at public 4-year universities spiked over 6% for both in-state and out-of state students, to $7,020 and $18,548, respectively.

At the same time, the availability of financial aid isn't keeping up with these climbing costs. Grant funding grew only 4.7% in the 2008-2009 academic year, the most recent for which data is available, which means that undergraduates' out-of-pocket costs are higher than ever.

That, combined with higher unemployment and stagnant household incomes, is making it harder than ever to finance a degree.

well this just has many implications. an uneducated populace is a sign of decline for sure. one of the many signs that the american empire is in decline. maybe even to the point of dissolution. which considering the way things work now, i dont think would be too bad a thing.

Yes it's quite a burden, and credit card companies only make the situation worse by handing out cards to students left and right with no background check of any kind. How can you honestly expect every person you hand "free money" to to pay it back? It's absurd!

But you don't have to go to college to educate yourself. If you have the ingenuity and will power you can educate yourself and build yourself up from the bottom.

Double post, sorry.

[edit on 20-10-2009 by Guru97]

Why do they charge so much? I know there are good professors and the education is good but why so much? Those prices are for 4 years?[i quess not he] you have to pay 'em up front?

I was watching a college football games a few weeks ago and the anouncer stated that tuition for that particular school was $52,000 a year!!!! I couldnt believe it, how can anyone afford that unless their parents are loaded. Enrollment at 2 year community colleges are up this year in NJ, no suprise as they are way cheaper. I think thats where alot of students will end up, and thats not a bad thing. Why waste your money or even worse take years to pay off student loans as you enter a very shaky job market.

Damn shame, education for your fture has to be so high in cost, especialy with, honestly...spring breaks, girls gone wild, things like that. To me college mens spin yuor head around to the front, not gutter it omce a month a year, witht he high cost of it! it would be better without the spring breaks/girls gone wild crap. Afterall, yuor all thier to learn, not get and act in sex education.
Hers a good tution When i was 17, 1992, in my high school, i was looking in college books in office. Pasafena, CA CALTECH. I loved astronomy so much more back then, i had thougth baout working for nasa, jet propulsion laboratory..no joke $48,000 a year!!!! courses ranged 4 to 6 years, and IF yuo garduate, of course, only those with A's strictly are gunna get the job. You must know avanced astropysics, algebra, things olike that, even to just build spacecraft! I did look at radio astronomy, b uut its rare a job ever opens, and usualy it very low salary..it was starting at like $27,000 a year back then :/
My jaw droped open, regarding the $48,000 tution a year at CALTECH. man, 4 to 6 years...$200,000- hald a million in tuition!

Originally posted by crw2006
I was watching a college football games a few weeks ago and the anouncer stated that tuition for that particular school was $52,000 a year!!!! I couldnt believe it, how can anyone afford that unless their parents are loaded. Enrollment at 2 year community colleges are up this year in NJ, no suprise as they are way cheaper. I think thats where alot of students will end up, and thats not a bad thing. Why waste your money or even worse take years to pay off student loans as you enter a very shaky job market.

Government financial aid inflates cost. I tried to find a picture of the cycle, but can't. Anyway, it goes something like government gives free money, people take free money, go to the more publicized schools, publicized schools get lots of applications, public schools raise rates, go back to step 1.

[edit on 20-10-2009 by radio_for_peace]

$48,000 a year is much more accurate in my situation than the $27,000 figure.

Some people can pay that much. Most people, like me, get federal aid to some extent.

I think my tuition will be around $52,000 a year in the near future.

Colleges need to buckle down and offer curricula that gives people a chance of getting REAL JOBS after school. Too much fluff in there...what's a sociology major going to do in this economy after graduating? Even the hard sciences are increasingly useless as more and more jobs evaporate or are shipped offshore.

I think there will always be a need for the liberal arts, and I don't advocate wiping them out completely. But come on...what useful skills do most people learn in college these days? Drinking themselves under the table 4 nights out of 5?

The bigger problem isn't colleges per se...its the economy. But colleges need to change and adapt themselves somehow to the fact that you can't have a huge percentage of Americans going deep into hock to waste four of their most vital and youthful years studying stuff that leads down a blind alley to joblessness...if they even study at all these days, that is. I hear you can download essays in anything off the internet nowadays, and apparently kids have no compunction about cheating or even texting each other answers in class, exams, etc.

There needs to be a total upending of the way colleges are run...currucula, teaching styles, the hedonistic campus culture...everything must change.



[edit on 10/21/09 by silent thunder]