Cost of College Up by 4% to 5%, Survey Reveals

Rising at more than twice the rate of inflation, average college tuition and fees jumped 4% this year and by 5% at private four-year institutions, according to a nationwide survey released Wednesday.

Students also are paying 3% to 5% more for room and board, bringing the total average cost to $10,458 a year for public colleges and $22,533 for private ones.

Harvard, Yale, Stanford and dozens of other elite universities charge much more, of course. Virtually all of them now post an annual total sticker price that exceeds $30,000.

Yet Donald Stewart, president of the College Board, which conducted the nationwide survey, criticized the media for stirring up sticker shock. He said most students either go to less expensive institutions or get financial aid that greatly reduces the cost.

“The truth is that the majority of Americans often overestimate the price of attending college and may be discouraged by those miscalculations,” Stewart told reporters at a news conference in Washington, D.C.

College officials defended this year’s price increases, saying faculty salaries have yet to catch up with inflation. Furthermore, universities face the huge expense of updating laboratories and wiring dorms for computers to keep pace with technology.

But USC economist Morton Owen Schapiro has a simpler explanation: soaring demand.

“People are lined up and willing to pay for a prestigious education,” he said. “If people weren’t willing to pay it, colleges and universities would forgo these price increases.”

Chapman University tuition has gone from $18,510 last year to $19,160 this year, a 3.5% increase. Total cost for the Orange university rose from $26,000 to $27,000, including room, tuition and books.

Public colleges in California bucked the trend this year as the Legislature, flush with tax dollars generated by the booming economy, decided to roll back student fees by about 5%.

So full-time undergraduates who are California residents will pay an average of $190 less to attend a UC campus, $79 less for a Cal State campus and $30 less for a community college.

But fees at public colleges elsewhere in the United States continued to creep upward. Students in other states are paying $3,243 in fees on average, $132 more than last year.

The reason, said Natala Hart, financial aid director at Ohio State University in Columbus, is that state governments are spending a smaller proportion of their budgets to subsidize public colleges every year.

On a bright note, the College Board reported that financial aid reached an all-time high of $60 billion last year, a 6% increase over the previous year.

But that doesn’t tell the whole financial story.

Nearly 60% of all such financial assistance came in the form of loans, which have to be repaid after graduation. Half a dozen years ago, grants made up more than half of all financial aid. Grants are now below 40%.

Stewart said college leaders are concerned about the crushing burden of debt facing graduates who often leave college owing tens of thousands of dollars.

“For poor families or low-income families, there is a great reluctance to take on debt,” Stewart said. “There’s almost a fear of it.”

College leaders applauded President Clinton for signing a bill Wednesday that shaved student loan interest rates to 7.43%--from 8.23%--and expanded the size and number of federal Pell Grants for needy students.

“With the stroke of his pen,” said New York University President L. Jay Oliva, “students and their families will enjoy the lowest interest rates on student loans in two decades.”

The cost of attending a four-year college has more than doubled since 1980, even after factoring in inflation. This year, the 4% to 5% increases again outstripped inflation, which is running at 1.6%, as measured by the consumer price index.

College officials have struggled with how to respond to the public and congressional outcry over rising costs.

The difficulty surfaced last year when the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education, appointed by Congress, circulated a draft report saying that America’s colleges are largely a bargain.

The commission backed away from such an assertion after Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) and other congressional sponsors suggested that unless colleges rein in costs, Congress might do it for them.

David L. Warren, president of the National Assn. of Independent Colleges and Universities, said private institutions will have difficulty dropping below 5% annual increases without sacrificing the quality of their faculty or educational offerings.

He and others hope that a forthcoming public relations campaign by the American Council on Education will increase awareness of the fact that only about a third of students pay full price because most qualify for assistance.

“Colleges have not told their story well enough,” Warren said.

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Sticker Shock

College tuition and fees continue to creep upward, despite low inflation rates. The exceptions are California public colleges and universities, which recently reduced fees. Some examples:

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1997-98 1998-99 Percentage School fees and tuition fees and tuition change MIT $23,100 $24,050 4.1% Duke $22,173 $23,864 7.6% Princeton $22,920 $23,820 3.9% Yale $23,100 $23,780 2.9% Harvard $22,802 $23,618 3.6% U. of Chicago $22,476 $23,514 4.6% U. of Penn. $22,250 $23,254 4.5% Pepperdine $21,170 $22,120 4.5% Stanford $21,300 $22,110 3.8% Pomona $20,680 $21,600 4.4% Columbia $19,900 $21,447 7.7% USC $20,480 $21,374 4.4% Chapman $19,064 $19,724 3.5% Caltech $18,816 $19,116 1.6% Loyola Marymount $16,495 $17,542 6.3% UC Berkeley $4,354 $4,177 -4.1% UC Irvine $4,065 $3,875 -4.7% UCLA $4,050 $3,863 -4.6% Cal State LA $1,757 $1,685 -4.1% LA City College $407 $384 -5.7%

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Note: For California public institutions, fees listed are for state residents. Fees for non-California residents are much higher. Most UC, Cal State and community college campuses tack on special user fees, accounting for slight variations in prices.

Source: Annual Survey of Colleges, College Board.