Rising College Tuition Costs

Accounting for inflation, here's a comparison of today's tuition prices with what my mother and father paid for college.

We all know that college tuition costs in the United States are rising at an astounding rate. But it wasn't always this way. Using this handy inflation calendar, let's compare the cost of college today with the cost of college when my mother and father went to school.

My mother went to the University of Minnesota from 1963-1968. (Kennedy, incidentally, was killed during her first semester.) During the 1963-1964 school year, the price of college tuition was $255. For the whole school year. My mother worked part time and during the summer, and she was able to pay her own tuition easily.

So, what's $255 in today's dollars? According to the inflation calculator, $255 in 1963 is the equivalent of $1557.55 in 2005. Therefore, if the cost of the tuition had only risen at the rate of inflation since 1963, a year of tuition at the University of Minnesota would cost $1557.55.

Wow, wouldn't students' lives be different if a year of tuition was $1557.55? Most students could easily earn that with a part time job, and many parents could easily afford to write a check for that amount. Or a student could take out a loan for the whole four years and owe a little over $6200.

Of course, tuition is much more expensive than that. During the 2005-2006 school year, in-state tuition at the University of Minnesota was $8040. Accounting for inflation, tuition is up over 500% at the University of Minnesota since 1963.

My father entered the University of Minnesota in 1957. Tuition for the whole year was $111. If tuition had only risen at the rate of inflation since 1957, a year at the University of Minnesota would cost $754.36. Accounting for inflation, tuition is up over 1000% since 1957.

If this makes you angry, contact your representative in Congress or your Senators.

And hey, do you need to vent about tuition costs? Please do so in this discussion!