Report: College prices up again this year, while student borrowing rises to keep up

The price of college again rose faster than the inflation rate this year, climbing 6.6 percent at four-year public schools and outstripping increases in the financial aid that lowers what most students actually pay.\nThe latest increases, reported Monday by the College Board, bring the average list price of four-year public universities to $6,185 this year, up $381 from 2006-2007. At four-year private colleges, tuition and fees rose 6.3 percent to $23,712.\nPublic two-year colleges, which educate about half of American college students, again got the best marks for keeping a lid on price increases. Their average price rose 4.2 percent to $2,361. Accounting for aid, their average net cost is only $320 per year.\n“For too long, parents have grimaced and borne the high price of college because they presumed that a higher education is key to their child’s success in today’s economy,” said James Boyle, president of the group College Parents of America, in a statement on the report. “Surely, the day will come – soon – when parents say enough is enough.”\nThe published price is not the real price for many students, thanks to financial aid, but the net price is rising too. On average, accounting for grants and tax breaks, the net price for full-time students at four-year public universities this year is $2,580. That’s about $160 more than last year.\nAt private colleges, net cost this year averages $14,400, up $638 from a year ago.\nTo make up the difference, students typically borrow as much as allowed from the federal government, but then turn to private student loans. A decade ago, nonfederal loans accounted for about 6 percent of student aid, but last year they were 24 percent.\nIncluding room and board for students living on campus, charges for public four-year colleges were $13,589, or 5.9 percent higher than last year. At private four-year schools, average total charges come to $32,307.\nGeorge Washington University in Washington, D.C., recently attracted attention for becoming the first major university with a published price, including room and board, of more than $50,000.\nHowever, the percentage of college-goers who pay such large sums is fairly small. Fewer than 10 percent of students even attend colleges with tuition and fees higher than $30,000, according to the College Board, and many of those students receive financial aid. About 56 percent of students at four-year colleges attend schools listing a price under $10,000, and about one-third attend schools charging under $6,000.\nThe College Board’s report does not try to explain why prices keep going up, though Sandy Baum, an economist with the group and at Skidmore College, points out that because of rising demand for higher education, more state appropriations have not translated into more money spent on each student.\nPeter McPherson, president of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, issued a statement saying that “leaders of America’s public research universities continue to be concerned about the impact that the cost of attending colleges has on students and their families.” But, he said, the average net price of $2,600 at four-year schools remains “excellent value.”\nThat contention is supported in a recent paper by Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of the financial aid Web site finaid.org. He tried to estimate how much a four-year college degree would have to cost before it would no longer be a good investment, given the $1.2 million increase in expected lifetime earnings that comes with a bachelor’s degree. His answer: about $520,000 – or $130,000 a year.