The buzz on college costs

Is "annually higher costs" under "college"?

Not only are students paying more for college these days, they are paying a greater percentage of the cost of their education. This means that as colleges find themselves needing to spend more, such as higher energy costs and professor salaries, they pass those costs on to the students. The cost to students, though, is outpacing the rate of increase for colleges.

These were part of the findings from the Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs. And students, according to Jane Wellman, an executive director for the Delta Project, “are arguably getting less.”

Part of the aim of the Delta Project is to make college more affordable by controlling the costs that colleges incur. This can be done, the project claims, without sacrificing quality.

The report focuses on the years between 1995 and 2006. It found that if tuition had risen at the rates that college costs increased, tuition at private universities would have risen by 1.9 percent instead of the 12.5 percent increase that actually occurred. For state colleges, tuition would have actually decline by 2.1 percent instead of rising by 29 percent. At community colleges, tuition would have declined by 5.8 percent instead of rising by 18.1 percent.

Visit America.gov to see the 2008 costs of college.

The Department of Education also has a lot of data on college costs, and the website sorts it out by state. Although the data is a little … dated, it’s a great way to compare college costs by state.