The Average Cost of a U.S. College Education

A comparative look at the average annual cost of higher education

By U.S. News Staff

August 24, 2010 RSS Feed Print

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the difference between tuition and the net cost less financial aid at public two-year colleges is not that significant, relatively speaking: roughly a few thousand dollars. But looking at private nonprofit four-year schools, that figure jumps dramatically, to almost $20,000. The average annual tuition (plus expenses) at a private nonprofit four-year college is about $35,000. Click around below to see how the numbers stack up.

Tags:
financial aid,
colleges,
education,
tuition

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I assume this graph demonstrates the overall net cost to the student less financial aid. How does government subsidies to public colleges factor into this cost?

David Parrish of NE 5:47PM December 21, 2011

Rob, In thirty years Bill Gates and Peter Drucker won't exist, but big university campuses ceertainly still will. Even if you take away instruction...which won't go away, these campuses are hubs for research, workforce development and just about every community and social mission you can name. It may be that many reforms will take place between now and then as they have forever in higher education, but starving the folks doing the heavy lifting is not the way to go. The most cost effective from the student's standpoint are the public 2 year and 4 year schools. They have by far the largest enrollments of the four sectors studied in the above article. It may be that the taxpayers will wake up and decide to let private colleges really be private. Shift the tax dollars from the privates to the publics if you want to lay the groundwork for the future.

Bob of PA 8:51AM August 26, 2010

Bill Gates, how the cost of college should drop from $200,000 to $2,000. http://kiwi.kz/watch/qnpt4tprnzto

Peter Drucker, Management Guru

"Thirty years from now the big university campuses will be relics. Universities won't survive. It's as large a change as when we first got the printed book. Do you realize that the cost of higher education has risen as fast as the cost of health care? And for the middle-class family, college education for their children is as much of a necessity as is medical care—without it the kids have no future. Such totally uncontrollable expenditures, without any visible improvement in either the content or the quality of education, means that the system is rapidly becoming untenable. Higher education is in deep crisis.” Seeing things as they really are, Forbes (March 10, 1997)

Rob P of CA 9:48PM August 25, 2010

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