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Comment by addicted | Hacker News Reader

Are you a boomer? Because you seem to think a decent public college is significantly less than 25k/year.

GA State University is a well regarded public college in GA - $10K a year.

https://sfs.gsu.edu/files/2019/05/FY20-Undergrad.pdf

And four year public colleges in GA offer 2+2 programs where you can go to a 2 year college even cheaper and then transfer.

Honestly, most students don’t go to Morehouse because it’s an outstanding college, they go to be a “Morehouse man” and the historical significance as an HBCU - And before I start getting replies about not understanding “the Black Experience”, I am Black, went to a much less prestigious (and cheaper) HBCU, spent a summer on Clark’s campus (part of the Atlanta University Center along with Morehouse) at a summer program, and came out with no student loan debt, and making just as much in 3 years as people coming from more prestigious schools.

How much is rent, utilities, and books on top of 10k/year tuition? Can students work to pay these other costs of living without sacrificing their studies? I have doubts.

Maybe at a public school the debt amounts are some percentage less. But, I argue, not that much less.

I can't speak for Georgia, but my monthly expenses at UMich were less than $1k, and I graduated less than 5 years ago.

Rent and food plan (generally required) is usually between 5-10k per year, maybe more now. Add in books, travel, and so many other expenses, and we are edging up to the 100k mark

Wait, are there any public colleges in the United States that charge anywhere near $25k/year for in-state undergraduate tuition?

The public university my brother is going to in New York costs around $25k for four years of tuition.

College debt doesn’t just come from tuition, if you want to make a valid argument representing students in the last 10 years, you need to take into account cost-of-living factors as well.

When you do, $25k isn’t hard to hit at all a year. Take any UC school (average in-state ~$15k) and add just rent (~$800/month if you’re lucky) and you’ll get there. Now factor in food, travel (over breaks), club fees, etc and you’ll see why debt is so high, on average, despite students working part time jobs.

Sure, but all the UCs offer quite a bit of financial aid too. Taking everything into account (tuition, room, board, and other expenses minus grants and scholarships), the net price of UC Berkeley is around $18k on average and 10k for low income students. Of the 26% of undergraduates who take out loans each year, the average amount was less than $6,000. The other UCs are even less. So the idea that taking out $25k/yr in loans at a UC is in any way typical is not consistent with reality as far as I can tell.

How much of the room and board could be covered by working part time? Could they stay at home for two years and go to a 2 year school and transfer?

Obviously, anecdotes aren't data, but "go to a CC for two years and transfer" is the path that a lot of people I know tried to take, and almost all of them ended up dropping out. A few joined the military, but almost all of the rest are just working standard service jobs, though they originally had much higher aspirations.

I know some of that might be attributed to them just being lazy or not being motivated, but it has been, in my experience, such a common story that I feel that there's a problem with providing kids with a simple life plan of "get two years at the local community college and transfer out".

I went to community college before I went to Uni. At least at my uni everyone that transferred in ended up not getting scholarships (we were told we would get them but constantly got a run around or financial aid would schedule meetings with us after the due date). We all ended up paying a little more than those that went all 4 years (who just maintained their scholarships).

Isn’t that even a better argument for going to a two year college? What if they spent those first two years spending more at a four year college and still had no degree?

But if the students didn’t complete a 2 year degree while staying at home, what are the chances of them completing a four year degree when they would have more autonomy and less oversight?

Part time work pays $10-15/hour. At 20 hours a work (which is nontrivial at difficult programs) you’d still easily accrue $1k/month from leftover rent/food/transit/etc.

Many students don’t have the options to stay home.

I’m a proponent of cc’s, but the discussion is about four year public schools being affordable.

I don’t want to be too pressing, but I’m guessing you’re in your forties or older, solely based on how out of touch are your responses (I.e. just do this, things aren’t so bad!).

I’m in the process of having an upcoming senior in high school - yeah I’m doing my research right now and know what the current costs of colleges are in GA.

Our plan is just what I outlined.

- a two year school that is part of the four year program at a local college where all of the credit transfers.

- staying at home for the first two years and we will pay for her car + car insurance.

- She will work part time just for spending money and incidentals.

- Since we won’t have to pay for room and board, she can get student loans that should cover tuition.

- That gives us four more years to get things together to help pay the student loans after she graduates (step daughter, I had no reason to worry about putting a child through college until 7 years ago).

I have a relative, whose parents just did something similar. He went to my alma mater for two years and with my encouragement, he transferred to a state school in Atlanta for a better curriculum and better networking opportunities.

They were in a position to save for his college, but his parents also put limits on the type of degree that he could get and the amount he could spend.

In-state tuition at University of Maryland is $10,000. You don’t need to take loans for living expenses, you can get a job. (A big part of what has made college “unaffordable” is not tuition increases, but the idea that people must be full-time students. That tacks on an additional $15k or so in living expenses each year, which is more than the tuition at all but the most expensive public colleges. To be fair, part of that is the exploding price of housing in many college towns, the bad job market for high school graduates, and the fact that we have infantilized teenagers so that they don’t go into college with job experience that might make them employable.)

> A big part of what has made college “unaffordable” is not tuition increases, but the idea that people must be full-time students.

Christ, it's like the FLOSS "time-isn't-money" scam got bored and decided to tackle higher education.

Any freshman at a four-year college who can "afford" a part time job along with their studies has the perfect detection system for a low quality education and should make their exit posthaste.

If you read this and think your college days are a counterexample, please allow yourself some time for silent contemplation before responding. (Contemplation-- that endeavor which apparently only gets introduced around graduate school nowadays.)

There are quite a few private colleges that have a tuition of about $2000/semester. It is entirely possible to get a bachelors for under $20k if you shop around.

Or, if you live somewhere like Oregon, if you graduate from an Oregon high school, the state will cover your tuition to a state college.

Citation?

The one person I know who is getting full state funding for community college in Oregon is waiting to see if the program they're in will be renewed next year. If not, they won't be continuing on to a bachelors degree. Note that this program is only for those that are essentially financially destitute.

Edit: All I can find is the Oregon Promise covering only up to 18k highschool students with a GPA over 2.5. This program does not cover anything beyond Community College. Seems much more limited/shitty than the Seattle Promise (free Community College for all highschoolers)

https://www.oregonstudentaid.gov/oregon-promise.aspx

This is false (of Oregon.) I live here and have a kid graduating with honors from High School this year. Wish it were true.

This is absolutely false.

My Georgia tech tuition was less than 25k/year.

Their estimates total for tuition + books + room & board...etc is 28k/year. With the hope merit scholarship it's <18k year

The average US student loan debt is about $37k.

The estimated cost of in-state tuition and fees for Georgia Tech is $12,418 per year without any aid.

If you meet the qualifications to get in to GA Tech, you most likely also meet the qualifications of the HOPE scholarship.

https://www.gafutures.org/hope-state-aid-programs/hope-zell-...

And it will cover most of your tuition.

The one I went to appears to be charging in-state rates of a bit under $10,000/year.

same here, and I went ~30 years ago. Lower class rates are between $9-$10k/year (was looking at two different schools recently - both in that ballpark, which included some books, expenses, etc). IIRC, my jr/sr years credit hour costs were higher, so I'd probably figure those might be, say, $14k? It seems that between books and some living expenses, many 'in state' schools can be done for < $15k/year. This is still fairly expensive (to my eyes) - figuring 4 years, that might get you to around $50k.

UNC Greensboro:

The following estimated annual costs for 2018-19 are for full-time students living on campus, excluding costs of books, supplies, clothing, travel, and personal expenses:

    Tuition & fees  $7,331
    Room (standard double)  $5,381
    Meals (university meal plan)  $3,657
    Total  $16,369

https://admissions.uncg.edu/costs-aid/costs/

He seems to be an Xer based on his name. But you can’t blame Xers either, higher education became predatory after Xers have graduated.

Good and obvious guess.

But, looking at the tuition of public colleges in GA - where I am a resident and where Morehouse is - I don’t consider the tuition outrageous.

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