Originally Posted by
Darrell KSR
To give a little more specificity.
In 1978-82, when I went to college, the cost of tuition at ULM (then Northeast Louisiana University) was $265 per semester, give or take a little. Books added another $100-150, depending on the semester.
Today: ULM tuition is still very "inexpensive," but instead of $265 per semester, it's $3829 per semester. Books are estimated at $1220 per semester, so it's a $5k per semester deal; it was $375-400 when I attended.
I had a Foundation Scholarship. The equivalent scholarship they give today appears to be a $6500 annual scholarship award. So rather than walking around with money in their pocket, they're having to come up with $3500 on their own. Now, that doesn't count living expenses, including housing.
I was broke, my parents couldn't afford anything to help me in school, so I lived at home. Fortunately, it was just 3 miles from campus. Home cooked meals, I bought my own brand new car from my work, etc. I had it made. Yeah, I missed out on a little.
Back to the point. NLU-ULM tuition/books increased from about $800 per year (two semesters--I always took the summer off to work and to coach baseball) to $10,000 per year.
My law school is where I decided to go into debt. I attended Tulane Law School, and paid my own way there as well. That. Was. Tough.
Tuition for Year # 1 was $6500 per year. That did not include my apartment rent, food, etc. I had a $1500 scholarship that reduced it to $5000. The rest came out of my savings and work I did during law school (I violated the school rule against working your freshman year. They knew I was doing it, because I worked in the law school library. I did closing shift each night, because it paid $0.50 an hour more, and because between 9pm-midnight, it slowed down and I could study on the job. Not a bad gig, maybe the best job I ever had.
2nd year it increased to $8,000 per year. No scholarship increase.
3rd year it increased to $10,500 per year. Due to persistent writing of my local legislators for three years, from before going to Tulane to every year there, I was awarded a legislative scholarship. Every legislator in the state of Louisiana has a legislative scholarship to Tulane--full tuition and fees. No requirements. Candy they can give out. If Lawson Swearingen had not come through with that scholarship, I don't know that I could have made tuition my final year. Upon graduation, Tulane raised tuition to $12,000 per year the year after I graduated. So from 1982 to 1986, it increased from $6500 to $12,000. Talk about going at the right time.
Today, tuition there is $51,010 a year. Add books, room and board, and Tulane estimates the annual cost at just a tick under $70,000 per year.
Are you kidding me? And that's for undergraduates as well as graduate school. More than $200,000 for a 3-year law degree, but almost $300,000 for a four year degree. If you do like most do these days, and get your four year degree in five years, it would be $350,000.
I don't know what all the education solutions are. Maybe they are exactly where they need to be. I enjoy reading the viewpoints expressed here, reading from a position of ignorance. But I am thankful my three oldest children chose very sensible educational solutions, although all of them went away to college, they attended in-state public schools that were reasonably affordable (all things considered).
I have two more on the horizon. My next one will be the "problem" one. I already eat Ramen noodles. What's cheaper than that to eat? Water?
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