Jerry ZurekCabrini’s tuition and fees has gone up more over the past five years than the average of private four-year colleges. Cabrini has gone up 32.7 percent whereas the national private college average has gone up 22.2 percent.
The College Board released its annual tuition survey on Tuesday, Oct. 17, which said that the costs for a private four year private college this year is $21, 235, including fees. Last year the average cost was $20, 045. Once again, the average cost of tuition grew higher than the rate of inflation this year.
In 2001, Cabrini’s tuition was $18,090 when the national average was $17,377. Since then Cabrini’s tuition has risen at a steeper level than the national average.
Cabrini’s tuition with fees, for this current year is $24,000 and last year it was $22,250. That is a 7.8 percent increase. The national average from last year was only a 5.9 percent increase.
The report also said that there is considerable variation across institutions and among states and by region. Also, many students pay less than the published price
According to the College Board’s report, Trends in College Pricing, the average student at a private four-year college receives about $9,600 of aid in the form of grants and tax benefits. Then they are left to pay the remaining balance of about $11,635, not including room and board.
A big growth that was seen in the report last year was students getting aid in the form of private student loans. Also, the number of Pell Grants dropped. They only increased 3 percent from 2004 to 2005, while in the past three years it had increased on an average annual rate of about 8 percent.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, students took out $14 billion in private loans, which is a 33 percent increase from last year and the highest percentage growth for any type of student aid that year.
Why does college tuition go up so much? The New York Times reported that the president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, Patrick M. Callan, said, “There’s a belief that high cost equals high quality.Most of them [students] want to go to college, and so it’s a seller’s market. Universities raise tuition because they can.”
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