Paying For College: How Much Does It Cost?
BOSTON (CBS) - The college students have returned to Boston. Classes have started and in order to start those classes, money had to be paid. Lots of money!
So I thought we would spend the week looking at ways to get that money for college.
According to a Fidelity study, saving for college has reached an all-time high with 72% of families in their survey currently saving. Sounds good, but they still have some work to do on the savings front though, as they are currently on track to save less than a third (29%) of their college funding goals by the time they drop the kid off on campus.
So how much does it cost to go to college? Harvard's tuition for this year is almost $45,000 ($44,990) and the room and board is $16,600. They estimate miscellaneous fees, books & personal items to be another $8,000. That's about $70,000 without adding the new computer or travel. The sticker price for four years at Harvard could be $300,000.
Tuition at UMass for this year is $15,400. Room & board over $12,000 ($12,258). A price tag of about $125,000 for four years. The average Massachusetts private college education price tag is about $250,000 for four years.
Just for clarification those are the sticker prices for college. At Harvard and UMass most students get some kind of financial aid.
College expenses have averaged an increase of about four percent a year. But the fees are worse than the airlines. According to MarketWatch, over the past few decades the cost of college textbooks has skyrocketed 945%, compared with a 262% increase in the consumer price index during the same period.
I strongly believe an education is a good investment! But the investment is in the kid so they should be part of the planning and the paying.
Kids need to be a part of this process. And they should have a job over the summer to earn money for school. They can easily be responsible for their spending money, clothes, entertainment, books and some of the fees depending on the job they have.
When getting a degree kids should consider a marketable degree, something that will get them a job upon graduation.
....................
You can hear Dee Lee's expert financial advice on WBZ NewsRadio 1030 each weekday at 1:55 p.m. and 3:55 p.m.
Subscribe to Dee's Money Matters newsletter here.
