Tuition Talk: College Costs in 18 Years (Yikes!)

Tuition Talk: where we vent our frustrations with the so-called “higher education bubble.” Raising questions such as “why do college presidents make so much money when students are struggling and in debt?” and “is college even really worth it anymore?” Check back Tuesdays and Thursdays for more!

If you’re currently in school and weren’t fortunate enough to get a full scholarship or have insanely rich parents, you’re likely already aware that college is costing you quite a bundle. Whether you’re working to pay it off now or you just graduated and you’re skating by on your student loan payments, you know that your education is/was ridiculously expensive, especially if you went to a private school.

Given how much tuition costs now, Kal Chany, Founder of Campus Consultants, decided to do the math and figure out just how much college might be costing the future students of the United States. And before we even think about what we’re going to say about it, just look at this chart and try not to have a heart attack.

Uh, we’re sorry. What?

According to this article by CNBC,  ”Even the top one percent may get a panic attack from the latest projected tuition rates.” Yeah, we’re going to have to agree with that one. We thought college was expensive at $50,000 a year even with scholarships taken out of it – what if tuition rose to double or triple that? Yikes!

The scariest part of it all is that while colleges are actually making less and less money despite charging more and more fees. According to WSJ, net tuition revenue is down. And what happens when schools make less money and retain fewer students? They have to cut funding. Meaning fewer class offerings, bigger classes, fewer extracurricular activities, and guess what else? Yep, that’s right. Less scholarship money.

The way things appear to be going, that means college tuition costs will skyrocket and scholarship funds will continue to be slashed, along with everything that makes college worthwhile. In this economy, higher education continues on a downward spiral.

That leads us to wonder: college may be worth it to us now, but what about the next generation of students? Will they be forced to forego that coveted Bachelor’s degree and kiss their Master’s degree dreams goodbye? Or will they pursue their desires and live in debt (or even be forced into bankruptcy!) for decades just because they wanted a degree?

It seems like it’s just a matter of not losing faith. We have to hope that we can come out of this great recession with a new lease on college life – one that doesn’t cost half a million dollars (and leaves us fighting for jobs that pay $20,000 a year!) Hopefully a solution is found before it gets to this point.

What are your thoughts? Are you worried more about your current financial situation? Or what is to come in the future? Let us know in the comments!

(Article Source 1 / Source 2) / Featured photo credit: Images_of_Money via photopin cc