That might be a little harsh and I'm sure there is some cute* behavioral economics explanation for this, but still …. From an article titled "what happens when a college tells students what they'll pay for all 4 years":

"As a new group of families laments each year, college is unlike any other purchase. One of its unusual — and frustrating — features is that students learn the bottom-line price of each institution mere weeks before they must decide where to enroll. Even then, they find out only what they’ll pay for their first year," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

via www.nasfaa.org

Isn't the answer, roughly, the product of the cost of one year of college and four (years of college)?

Then you must factor in adding a year if you dare to change your major after your first semester, another year for the poor grades you get from too many parties and 10% inflation. But still, the order of magnitude should be about the same.

*Yes, I went there.

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  1. Jodiecongirl Avatar

    Not necessarily- first, there’s nothing stopping the school from changing the price of tuition from year to year in ways that deviate sharply from the rate of overall inflation. Second, and hopefully what the article meant to say, is that some schools require students to update their financial aid information each year, which does in fact mean that students could be paying significantly different amounts each year if their family circumstances change or the school decides to be more or less generous. I’m going to be optimistic and assume that this is where the apprehension comes from rather than an inability to multiply by four, since the latter is too depressing.

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