(UPDATE: a significant error has been fixed in the below chart. Thanks to Felix Salmon’s readers for pointing out the error.)
The ever-rising cost of US college tuition is a constant news theme this time of year, including recent views by the Wall Street Journal (”Students Borrow More Than Ever For College“) and the always-provocative Felix Salmon. A discussion with my father-in-law, who mentioned that he used to earn enough to pay his private-college tuition in the 1950s while working in the Poconos each summer, spurred me to look at how tuition has risen from 1950 till now. (I was a freshman in college in 1980.) I looked at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, my alma mater, to make a constant comparison, but I could have used any 4-year college. Here’s what I found:
| 1950 | 1980 | 2009 | |
| RPI tuition (then-current dollars) | 700 | 4500 | 38100 |
| Tuition (2009 dollars) | 6255 | 11718 | 38100 |
| US median income (2009 dollars) | 29658 | 54744 | 61808 |
This is what happens when prices increase above the rate of inflation for decades. Here’s another way of viewing the same information:
I’m not sure how much more prices can rise before the entire system collapses, or at least radically rearranges. My son is 8 years old. Will we have $100,000 yearly expenses by the time he goes to school? Will anyone be able to afford that? Will it be worth it?
(Spreadsheet with sources referenced can be found here: college-tuition-trends1)
