Trends in College Pricing

Overview > Highlights

Published Tuition and Fee and Room and Board Charges

Published tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities rose at an average annual rate of 4.9% per year beyond general inflation from 1999-2000 to 2009-10, more rapidly than in either of the previous two decades. The rate of growth of published prices at both private not-for-profit four-year and public two-year institutions was lower from 1999-2000 to 2009-10 than in either of the previous two decades.

Published charges do not reflect the prices most students pay. About one-third of full-time students pay
without the assistance of grant aid, and some of these students receive federal tax credits and deductions to help cover expenses.
Published in-state tuition and fees at public four-year institutions average $7,020 in 2009-10, $429 (6.5%)
higher than in 2008-09. Average total charges, including tuition and fees and room and board, are
$15,213, up 5.9%.
Published out-of-state tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities average $18,548,
$1,088 (6.2%) higher than in 2008-09. Average total charges are $26,741, up 6.0%.
Published tuition and fees at public two-year colleges average $2,544, $172 (7.3%) higher than in 2008-09.
Published tuition and fees at private not-for-profit four-year colleges and universities average $26,273 in
2009-10, $1,096 (4.4%) higher than in 2008-09. Average total charges are $35,636, up 4.3%.
Estimated published tuition and fees at private for-profit institutions average $14,174, $859 (6.5%) higher
than in 2008-09.
Largely due to fluctuating energy prices, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) declined by 4.0% from July 2008 to January 2009 and then rose by 2.0% from January 2009 to July 2009, yielding a decline of 2.1% for the year.
This decline means that inflation-adjusted increases in prices this year are larger than current dollar increases.
All students, whether they live in campus housing or not, must buy books and supplies and pay for food, housing and other living expenses while in school. They would face many similar expenses if they were not in school, but would be able to devote more time to the labor force.

Variation in Tuition and Fees

Half of all full-time public and private not-for-profit four-year college students attend institutions charging tuition and fees less than $8,679, and half attend institutions with higher published prices.

In 2009-10, published in-state tuition and fees at public doctorate-granting universities are $7,797, compared
to $6,094 at public master’s universities, and $5,930 at public baccalaureate colleges.
About 24% of all full-time students attending four-year colleges are enrolled in institutions with published prices below $6,000 per year. This includes 33% of public college students and 5% of private college students.
About a quarter of full-time four-year college students are enrolled in institutions with published prices of
$21,000 per year or higher. These students attend either private institutions or public institutions outside
their states of residence.
Although the average increase in tuition and fees at public four-year colleges in 2009-10 is 6.5% for in-state students and 6.2% for out-of-state students, 15% of full-time students in this sector attend institutions that increased their published prices by 12% or more, and 17% attend institutions that increased their prices by less than 3%.
In 2009-10, the New England region has the highest average public four-year prices and the South has the lowest.

What Students Actually Pay

Although average published tuition and fees increased by about 15% in inflation-adjusted dollars at private not-for-profit four-year and by about 20% at public four-year colleges and universities from 2004-05 to 2009-10, average estimated 2009-10 net price for full-time students, after considering grant aid and federal tax benefits, is about $1,100 lower (in 2009 dollars) in the private sector and $400 lower in the public sector than it was five years ago.

Full-time students at private not-for-profit four-year institutions receive an estimated average of about $14,400
in grant aid from all sources and federal tax benefits, reducing the average net tuition and fees they pay
to about $11,900.
Full-time students at public four-year institutions receive an estimated average of about $5,400 in grant aid from
all sources and federal tax benefits, reducing their average net price to about $1,600.
Full-time students at public two-year colleges receive an estimated average of $3,000 in grant aid from all
sources and federal tax benefits. This aid covers average tuition and fees and provides about $500 toward
living expenses.
For full-time dependent students from the lowest-income families, on average, grant aid covered tuition and fees at public two-year colleges from 1992-93 through 2007-08, the last year for which data are available, and at public four-year colleges and universities from 1999-2000 through 2007-08.

Institutional Finances

The $7,953 state tax appropriations per student in 2008-09 were 12% ($1,100) lower in constant dollars than a decade earlier.

Nationally, state appropriations per $1,000 in personal income declined from $9.74 in 1989-90 to $7.36 in
1999-2000, and $6.50 in 2008-09.
As of June 2008, 18 private colleges and universities had endowment assets exceeding $500,000 per student.
The vast majority of the more than 1,600 private not-for-profit institutions and more than 650 public four-year institutions had much lower endowments or no endowments at all.
In 2007-08, average salaries for full-time faculty members at public two-year colleges were the same in inflationadjusted dollars as they had been in 1991-92. Average salaries had increased 4% at public four-year
and 11% at private not-for-profit four-year institutions over these 16 years.

College Affordability

Between 1978 and 2008, average family income declined by 3% ($528 in constant 2008 dollars) for the poorest 20% of families, but rose 15% ($8,067) for the middle 20% and 78% ($143,587) for the wealthiest 5% of families.

In 2008, median family income for those with a bachelor’s degree or more was $101,099, compared to $49,414 for those with a high school diploma.
Average published tuition and fees at public four-year colleges rose about $4,300 (in 2008 dollars) between 1978-79 and 2008-09, about half of the increase in average income for the middle 20% of families and 7% of the increase in average income for the 20% of highest-income families.