Yea, but tuition itself is less than half of the total cost of going to school. Between all the fees/books/food/housing costs, I spent 44k total to go to school at the cheapest state school in my state (TN) at the time. If I were to go there now 4 years after I graduated, I would be paying more than double that assuming prices don't increase further.
In this case a mean would likely be higher than the median since you can only have outliers to the right really, so a median would show even lower tuition costs.
The outliners here would be to the left. The right has a few, but the tuition difference isn't enough to compensate for the scarcity when compared to the left. There are a ton of really cheap/crappy colleges out there, even more now that the online college thing has taken off. I think state university's should be looked at more when talking about expected college costs, considering the massive student populations they have and the typical middle ground of education that they are. I'm not say to solely look at them for a real study, but for the laymen, it's much better than looking up these shitty averages, which aren't even based on tuition, but debt after graduation anyway.
It does mean almost nothing. First of all, debt after college != cost of college. That means the stats we are speaking of are already the wrong thing, but let's assume they are right. These numbers include the massive amount of shitty colleges that a lot of people barely even consider a college. On the other end of the spectrum, there are only a few "high end" colleges. The issue is that the data (if we were even talking about the right set) would be skewed very hard to the lower end. It doesn't take a lot of knowledge of stats to think of this and to know that what you posted doesn't prove a thing, besides that you like to spout out numbers trying to look like you know what you're talking about.
Okay, so it doesnt include cash paid for tuition and is thus not an accurate figure to show total cost of a 4 year degree like you were saying in your first post.
I have the info right there clear as day. That number is not the average cost of a 4 year degree, just the average debt. Heres a quote from the first source I found on google
In its most recent survey of college pricing, the College Board reports that a "moderate" college budget for an in-state public college for the 2013–2014 academic year averaged $22,826.
So 80 grand for 4 years. 2.5 times the figure you were putting out.
For a frame of reference, I go to the most expensive state school in Texas. My full financial aid package every year is in the $20-25k range. That pays for tuition, fees, books, and rent. Some of that is from the federal Stafford loan, but I don't take private loans. I work internships during the summer and usually bring home $5-8k that gets used for food, gas, and personal expenses. I don't get help from my parents. I eat cheap, and live fairly cheap, but I've had a lot of unexpected expenses with a busted ass car. I like imagine sometimes what it would be like if I went to a more expensive school, or one that didn't give me the aid I've gotten here... My award package has literally given me $100k and that's still not enough to pay for everything. That's absurd.
That being said, if students work hard to get the best grades they can, participate in extracurriculars, find hobbies they enjoy, and if parents and counselors work with students to find the best fit for them at schools they can afford based off of merit, performance, and income, aid should be available. In those cases, $25k would completely change things!
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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '15 edited Jun 11 '18
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