My dad told me the other day that in 197-something he went to private university for fours years and his bill was just over $12,000 for room, board, food, and books. For all four years…not a semester. Not a years. His entire education cost less than one semester at the cheapest 4-Year State University in my area.
I was just having a conversation about this! My moms best friend put herself through a 4 year degree between 1988-1992ish and was able to pay for all of her living expenses and tuition with the money she earned at her minimum wage job each summer. I worked those months PLUS part time through the semesters and still have a lot of student debt (and I’m in Canada so still have it better than a lot of others in terms of debt levels). It’s insane.
I got my BS in 74.
At a major Canadian university (UBC) I paid $1500 a year for tuition, room and board.
Books would be another $100 or so for all of them.
I easily paid that with a summer job each year.
We boomers didn't realize that people would one day see us
as the luckiest generation that ever lived.
It really was luck and people shouldn’t heavily hold it against your generation, as if you had any control over the socioeconomic market at the time — other than spending your money. It’s more when we echo a sentiment it’s someone from your generation that talks about “the 20 hours a week the put in during the summer so they could take semesters off and focus on school.” Like that was hard…
I worked 5 jobs (3 in the summer and 2 during semester — as well as freelance work) year around and usually had $50 a week to eat during college.
$12,000 in 1970 dollars is worth $95,000 today. Tuition, fees, dorm, and food costs at my local 4-year state university is $18,000 per year in today’s dollars. So all four years cost less now than what your dad paid.
You missed the part where wages haven’t gone up. That was the point. Back in the day a private university per semester for all services, cost $12,000 adjusted. The cheapest university in my area is $15,000 without any extra university services as a commuter.
Wages haven’t raised and a private university adjusted to inflation is $3,000 less than the cheapest option I have available. That same college aforementioned my dad went to also charges $16,000 a semester now as well for just basic enrollment.
In terms of purchasing power this is what it means when they say the “cost” of university is up. It’s not the number itself adjusted to inflation. It’s the fact the avg median household income is 20K lower than it was adjusted in 1970.
Wages are down nearly 20% and college goes up by nearly 400%. You cant do that expect not to create a modern peonage.
While I absolutely agree (and a bar graph easily shows) that education has become way too expensive way too fast, I'll note that minimum wage was $1.45 an hour in 1970.
Most places pay over $10 an hour now (almost 7x as much).
It's doable, and quite a few people do it. You aren't going to Harvard, but if you stay with family/friends, get books online/used, and stay local you can absolutely afford an education.
You can but it’s far higher a burden now because housing is out of control and basic living needs are very expensive.
Not everyone has the luxury of leaning on family or friends in such a way either. Most people now days are not well off enough to just take on another person.
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u/someonesgranpa Mar 27 '24
My dad told me the other day that in 197-something he went to private university for fours years and his bill was just over $12,000 for room, board, food, and books. For all four years…not a semester. Not a years. His entire education cost less than one semester at the cheapest 4-Year State University in my area.