Since it's a Friday at work, I went to my alma mater's website to use their calculator to see what it really costs for a freshman. I opted out of any optional fees (green fee, legal fee, health insurance, media fee, parking pass, etc.) and picked the lowest cost dorm and meal plan. It comes to $10066.00 a semester. So with another grand for books and another $375 for a $25/week allowance for fun stuff (pizza and beer, Greek activities, dates, etc.), plus laundry money, etc. you're looking at something like $12K a semester. There is an on-campus housing requirement for freshmen and sophomores, so that's the minimum you can pay. I have no doubts the colleges inflate cost of attendance numbers, but I don't think they're doing so by that much.
My comment about 1980s and previous graduates is that a lot post here about how they worked part time and cash flowed their way through college and graduated with little or no debt, and they think the sheltered, spoiled kids entering college should just do the same. Student loan crisis solved! I am simply pointing out that it would be extremely difficult for most students to do that given the realities of today. Culturally, we've pounded the idea that every kid is college material into society's head, and as you point out, a lot make really bad decisions on how to accomplish the goal of attaining a 4 year degree. If you're one of the unlucky kids who gets kicked out at 18 with no parental support, taking out a loan for all of your expenses and living on campus might be your best option, though.
A lot of people mention the GI bill or ROTC too. I have great respect for those who serve so I can enjoy the spoils of their sacrifice. But how appealing has that option been for the last decade, knowing you had a high probability of being shipped off to a war zone upon enlistment or graduation? If they want to do it for love of country / sense of duty and the educational benefits are secondary, that's one thing. As a parent I don't think I would ever tell my kid they should voluntarily put themselves in harms way just so they can make college more affordable.
Well, my tuition was $12k a year alone, so the cost as a freshman, including room & board, was about $18k. So an average of $20k a year for 4 years, starting in 1988. (And my military service was Navy, added benefit of being less dangerous. Anyway.)
If you get kicked out at 18, I would absolutely NOT recommend taking out loans to live on campus. I have a friend (a number of years younger than me) who got kicked out at 18 (she was daughter #3 of 3). She was still a senior in HS! Ended up living with her sister. Her mother is not going to win an award for mother of the year. She worked FT in a grocery store and went to community college. Switched from art history to chemistry. Eventually transferred to the local uni and switched to chem eng. Many kids at 18 are way too young to be taking out those kinds of loans, not knowing if they are even going to finish.
After all of these discussions, and for giggles, I decided to look up meal plan options for both the local university (UC) and CMU. Goodness gracious. Full meal plan (19 meals a week) at CMU is over $6000 a year. More than I spend to feed my family of 4. Now, it comes down to about $8.57 a meal, which is about right if you are eating every meal out. I was required to have the full meal plan as a freshman (just roll that back to 1988 dollars, hence the typical cost of $3-4 I'm guessing). But after that, I cut down to 7-ish meals a week. The interesting thing is that they have a cheaper "flexible" meal plan where it's not per week - it's a certain amount of cash and then 160 meals for the year...that one comes out to $25 a meal. You have to be really bad at math to pick that one.
UC isn't any better. It's hard to figure if you live on campus, because it's "rolled into your room rate", but for off campus students it's $9.55 a meal.
I graduated with about $11k debt with ROTC. $6k for the first year. I would have been approximately $30-40k in debt had I not joined ROTC. The typical starting salary for an engineer in my graduating class was about $40k. I think that's reasonable. Borrowing approximately 1x of your starting salary is something that can be paid off.
I'd like to add, it wasn't necessarily "typical" to cash flow your way through college. My classmates included:
- middle class kids with summer jobs
- ROTC kids
- poor kids like me who hustled and worked during the summers and school years (and sometimes did ROTC too)
- financially responsible kids who worked in HS and saved up $16k before they went to college
- rich kids with cars and computers whose parents bankrolled them
- middle class kids whose dads worked at the school so they got free tuition
The majority of students that I attended college with did not have jobs during the school year. Most of them did some kind of work in the summer. Heck, my college boyfriend was in ROTC. His parents paid for his food and gave him a credit card, to be used for only necessities (and he had to justify every charge). They also paid for 2 classes every summer so that he had a lighter load during the school year. He graduated without debt. But his parents were solidly middle class and could afford that.