- The price tag on college education
is getting really steep.
In fact, students graduating in 2020 are graduating
with more than $30,000 in student loan debt.
Let's dive into the average cost of college
and how that's changed over time
and how you can make the most of your money
as you decide which college to attend.
(calm music)
Hey guys, welcome back to the College Investor, the place
for investing and personal finance for millennials.
Now, I'm all about a college education.
I loved my time attending university
and I think that the cost of attendance has just ballooned
so much that it's making it difficult
for students not to graduate with student loan debt.
So check this out, this is really crazy.
The cost, the average cost of college has increased more
than four times since 1985 to the 2016-2017 academic year.
Now, this includes tuition for two-year
and four-year colleges, kind of lumping everybody together
including public and private schools.
So let's rewind back to 1985-1986, okay?
You may not have been alive then, I certainly wasn't,
but this is what the cost to the average cost
of tuition was like back in that time.
So for public and private colleges together,
all institutions, the cost for a college education
per year was $4,885.
For four-year colleges, it looked like $5,500
and two-year colleges it was $3,300.
Now, if we fast forward to 2016-2017,
that academic school year, for all institutions,
including public and private colleges,
the average cost of attending university
was just over $23,000.
That is insane.
For four-year colleges, it was $26,593
and two-year colleges it was $10,598.
So you're probably thinking, wow, that's huge.
It includes both public and private schools,
so private schools might be skewing those numbers.
So let's break those out into two separate pieces.
For public colleges in 1985, all universities,
it was just under $3,600 to attend school.
Four-year colleges, it was around $3,800
and two year-colleges it was $2,900,
but check out this chart.
In 2017, those numbers had increased to $17,000
for all colleges, 19, just over $19,000
for four-year schools, and $10,000 for two-year schools.
Now, for private colleges in 1985, it was around $8,800
for all schools and that jumped, oh my gosh,
this jumped in 2017 to just under $41,000
for one year of private school.
Kind of makes you second-guess whether
or not private school's the right way to go these days.
So these numbers don't factor in the cost of food,
your living arrangements, books,
any extracurricular activities that you definitely want
to be a part of in school,
so those are all additional costs to tuition.
So basically over the last 30 years,
the cost of attending college has increased between 400
to 500% and that includes any type of college
that you may want to attend.
Public, private, four-year, or two-year,
it doesn't matter which way you slice it,
tuition has increased dramatically.
This can be really disheartening and kind of stressful,
especially for students who are just entering
into college the first time and trying to figure out
how you can even cover the cost of attending one year.
So if you are trying to reduce your college cost,
there are several ways that you can try
to minimize the amount of debt that you may owe
and try to cashflow tuition.
First thing's first, you want to consider all options,
the two years, the four years.
If you're going into a profession like medical profession,
nursing school, then you're probably going to opt
for a four-year college, and then knowing that you're going
to move into these specialized schools later on.
So next, you want to consider a two-year public school.
So you could get your prerequisites out of the way
by attending a community college and then transferring
into a four-year university.
Also, opt for in-state schools.
In-state tuition is going to be way more affordable
than an out-of-state school, so be sure to check
what in-state options that you have.
Now, if you do go for an out-of-state school,
consider looking for ways to make sure
that you become an in-state resident
and then report that back to your school
so that you could get in-state tuition for your university.
Now, you'll have to check with your school to see
how that all works, but it could be an option for you.
Next, you'll want to consider a vocational or a tech school.
There are plenty of high-paying professions out there
that don't require a college degree.
All you need to do is hit up your local vocational
or tech school which can be a much more affordable option.
This next option I can't stress enough.
Scholarships, scholarships, scholarships.
Please make this a part-time job.
If you're in high school and college and you're looking
for ways to reduce those costs, absolutely make this part
of your daily or weekly routine to scholarship hunt.
I wish I would've taken scholarship hunting more seriously
and come up with an organized plan to make that happen.
It's so crucial.
It's free money that is available to you
when you have the right tools in place to know how
to get after those scholarships, and finally,
if you are watching this after you've graduated
from college, look for tuition reimbursement options
from your employer.
Talk to your HR department.
There are plenty of programs out there
where employers will help reimburse tuition expenses
which could reduce the amount of debt that you owe.
Unless there's a radical intervention,
the cost of college is just going to continue
to rise here in the United States.
It's inconvenient, but it's true,
and I definitely recommend doing your research upfront.
Doing the work upfront prior to making those decisions
and getting into your semester is really going
to help you take control and ownership
of how much you are going to owe in student loan debt
and if you can eliminate taking out federal student loans
or private student loans altogether.
There are plenty of resources available to you on how
to reduce student loan debt and your college tuition cost
by visiting thecollegeinvestor.com.