college tuition costs
increased fee drive up STUDENT LOANS
The report does not provide a comprehensive
analysis of all of the factors that influence increases in fees and tuition, it
does, however, provide valuable information on some of the costs that are faced
by higher education institutions.
In addition, as in past years, the report indicates that the largest average
increases in tuition and fees at public 4-year universities and colleges takes
place during periods of decline or slow growth in the level of state aid granted
per student.
What Students Actually Pay
Net prices vary even more than published prices.
Trends in College Pricing reports on the average price net of grants and federal
education tax credits and deductions.
Net prices actually dropped or rose only slowly during the early years of the
1995–2005 decade, but they have been increasing in all 3 sectors since 2001-02.
Over the past ten years, in both private and public institutions, net price as a
percentage of income has risen significantly only for those in the lower 1/2 of
the income distribution.
Enrollment Patterns
New to the reports this year is information on nontraditional enrollment patterns. Only a fraction of undergraduates fit the traditional model of students between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four who are enrolled full-time at university. Almost forty percent of undergraduates are now over the age of twenty-four. About forty percent of undergraduate students are enrolled part-time.
Trends in Student Aid 2005
Average aid per student increased by three percent between 2003-04 and 2004-05, after adjustments were made for inflation. Between 1996-97 and 2001-02, total grant aid for undergraduates increased twice as fast as total borrowing, but since 2001-02, that pattern has been reversed.
In 2004-05, the percentage of total undergraduate
aid in the form of grants dropped for the third year in a row. Undergraduates
received forty-six percent of their aid in the form of grants. Graduate students
received twenty-two percent of their aid in the form of grants.