The Cost of Going to College

Books and Magazine Articles

Andrews Benjamin R. “What Does it Cost to Study at Teachers College?” Teachers College Record, 1916, pp. 369–71.

Costs for forty-five women students—median $883; also for twelve graduate students with families—average for family of husband and wife, $834.

Bailey W. B. “Expenses of College Students.” World Today, April, 1905, pp. 386–89.

Based on reports handed in monthly by about 250 Yale college students, mostly juniors, 1902–04, elaborated to discover differences between expenditures of poor and wealthy students; five groups, under $500., $500.–1000., $1000.–1500., $1500.–2000., over $2000.

For various sub-heads the expenditures range in absolute and percentage amounts for these five levels: Necessities, $228. to $1464., and 78.2 to 59.5 per cent of total expenditures; stationery, $23. to $100., and 7.9 to 4.1 per cent; pleasures, $38. to $716., and 13.1 to 29.1 per cent; tobacco and intoxicants, $2.20 to $181.20, and .8 to 7.3 per cent. The highest group spent in absolute amounts the following multiples of absolute amounts for lowest group: necessities, 6.41 times; stationery, 4.36; pleasure, 18.66; tobacco and intoxicants, 82.36; total, 8.43 times as much.

Bailey W. B. “Personal Budgets of Unmarried Persons.” Yale Review, 10: 70 (1901–02).

Found average for Yale students of $1,116., divided as follows: Necessities, $809.70 or 73.5 per cent; stationery, books, stamps, $52.60 or 4.7 per cent; pleasures, $203.70 or 18.4 per cent; and tobacco and intoxicants $50. or 4.5 per cent. Classifying low, moderate and high budgets, necessities decreased from 81 to 69.5 per cent; stationery from 6.9 to 4.4 per cent; pleasure increased from 10.8 to 20.3 per cent, and tobacco and intoxicants from 1.6 to 5.8 per cent. Costs for a few college women, and college graduates; also interesting historical data from English college costs.

Chapin F. S. “Budgets of Smith College Students.” Publications of American Statistical Association, 1916, pp. 149–56.

Accounts kept for college year 1914–15 by 421 students; range, $350.–$1850.; median, $711.12; average, $765.55. Average of items: clothing (bought at College), $76.27; laundry, $8.50; travel, $58.57; health, $11.74; incidentals, $43.19; recreation, $35.09; dues and subscriptions, $10.30; books, stamps, stationery, $26.08; church and charity, $5.24; tuition and fees $165.; while room and board average from $251. for low-expenditure group to $448. for high-expenditure group. Average data in detail are given for four levels of expenditures, $350.–600, (100 students); $600.–800, (145); $800.–1000, (81); and $1000.–1900, (58); these show that the greater the total expenditure—(1) the smaller the percentage for subsistence (room and board) (48.6 to 38.6 per cent); (2) the greater the proportion for clothing (2.1 to 17.7 per cent); and (3) the greater the proportion for sundries of recreation and incidentals (6.6 to 11.7 per cent). (See also Comstock, below.)

Comstock Ada L. “Undergraduate Budgets.” Smith College Alumnae Quarterly, VII: 81–86 (1916).

Dean Comstock gives further details of the study reported by Chapin; also several significant individual budgets, dated from 1891 to 1916.

Claus H. T. “Cost of Going to College.” Summarized from Boston Transcript in Nation, 95: 557 (1912).

From 1892 to 1912, tuition in 30 colleges increased from $100. to $126. (26%); board increases (for not quite the same group) were an average of 23%—the average of various rates from 10 to 50% (6 cases of o change in board not counted in).

Forsyth C. H. “What it Costs Today to Go to College.” School and Society, 19: 45, Jan. 12, 1924.

Estimates secured at end of college year 1922–23 from 569 students living in fraternity houses at Dartmouth College; range $600.–$3000.; median, $1319.55; average, $1342.; one-half spend between $1142. and $1552. Class averages: freshmen, $1268.; sophomores, $1332.; juniors, $1348.; seniors, $1360.

Forsyth C. H. “A Comparison between Fraternity and Non-Fraternity Expenses at the University of Illinois.” Science, N.S. 32: 911 (1910).

Data for 1908–09 from 284 in each group (omitting self-supporting students). Average $587.06 for fraternity men (range $350. to $1500.), and $407.56 for non-fraternity men (range $150. to $800.). Of the difference in average figures, $50. due to fraternity fees. Differences in fraternity groups, members of strong national organizations tending to spend more than members of local organizations.

Frost M. H. , and Caverno I. H. “What it Costs to Send a Girl through College.” Outlook, 59: 82 (1898).

Estimates based on Smith, Vassar, Wellesley: Board, $250.–300. a year; tuition, $100.; books, stationery, laboratory fees, class tax, etc., $50.; plus $50. to $250. more; or total of $500.–700. Mount Holyoke, probably one-third less; and small colleges still less.

Graham Helen T. , and others. Expenses of Women College Students—a Survey of 114 Colleges and Universities, College Club of St. Louis. Published by American Association of University Women, 1922.

“Average catalog expense (tuition, room and board, and fixed fees) tends to be high at large private institutions particularly in the East, and low at small private institutions and for residents of the state at state stitutions.” The range is $260.–$1010.; average $486.04, and 55 per cent of cases are between $300. and $500., 6 per cent below this and 39 per cent above. Average extra-catalog expenses (books and * supplies, dues, contributions, recreation, and incidentals) tend to be high at large institutions and low at small ones, whether private or state; the range is $70.86 to $337.20; average, $160.25. The total expense (minus clothing and railroad travel) is high at large private institutions; low at small institutions whether private or state; -and average at large state institutions. It varies from $365. to $1000.; with the average total $577.05 (exclusive of clothing and travel).

Gray Cora E. “Living Expenses of Women Students at University of Illinois.” Journal of Home Economics, 8: 85–87 (1916).

Accounts kept for three months by fifty-three upper-class students. Average, $181.77, and median, $176.84; also ranges and quartiles for items.

Hadley Arthur T. “Alleged Luxury among College Students.” Century, 63: 313 (1901).

Increased general luxury reflected in colleges; “make the college course a field for hard work”; “evils avoided when those able to practice luxury make it no longer their chief concern,” and others “helped by having learned to live in a community where luxury exists and is rated at its true value.”

Hadley Arthur T. “Wealth and Democracy in American Colleges.” Harper's Magazine, 113: 450 (1906).

Classifies students as two-thirds of good quality, and of rest, one-half are weak and one-half selfish. Boys of character stand temptation whether rich or poor. “The chief danger of luxury lies in its effect on the mind of the person who enjoys it.” “The danger from luxury will never be very serious unless it is accompanied by the creation of class distinctions.” High scholastic standards and athletics as dominant interest curb the bad effects of luxury. Student must in college learn adjustments to and with wealth, as in the outside world into which he will go.

Haines S. Deborah. “A Budget Project in Three State Colleges for Women.” Journal of Home Economics, 14: 125–28 (1922).

Accounts kept in Connecticut, Delaware, and Oklahoma colleges by about 65 students. Averages: Delaware, first half-year, $335.; Connecticut first half, $633., and second half, $514., Oklahoma, first half, $238., and second half, $168. Ranges given. Stimulated study of students’ own standards and family expenses.

Lockwood Helen E. “Budgets of Nineteen Seniors at Framingham, Mass., State Normal School, 1920–21.” (Unpublished notes.) Room, board and limited laundry, $260.; including this item, costs ranged from $678. to $1225., with median at $860. and average, $877.68. The items ranged as follows: Education, $15.–$125. with median, $40; clothing, $65.–$500., median, $178.; operating costs, $12.–$171., median, $38.; higher life, $15.–$178., median, $56.

MacLeod Sara “College Students Accounts.” Journal of Home Economics. 10: 457–59 (1918).

Average of accounts kept by class in Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 1913–14 (12 months) and 1915–16 (9 months); two groups, boarding and cooperative housekeeping. Averages:—Boarding, 1913, $606.; 1915, $527.; coöperating, 1913, $452.; 1915, $454. Detailed classification for accounts suggested.

Newcomber Mabel. “Expenditure of Vassar Students during Three Months, Feb. 16 to May 15, 1920. Manuscript in Department of Statistics, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.

Accounts of 328 students show an average weekly expenditure of $18.35, or probably $700. per college year, plus $800. for room, board, and tuition, or an average total of $1500.

Thwing Charles F. “The Increasing Cost of Collegiate Education.” Forum, 18: 630–35 (1895).

Quotes catalog costs; increased three or four times in sixty years but reflect general changes. Costs prevent worthy students from entering. Remedy, endowments.

Todd W. C. “College Expenses.” Education, 9: 14 (1888).

Increases in catalog figures of New England colleges from $100.–$150. in 1840 to two or three times that amount; for example, Dartmouth, 1840, $105. and 1885, $232.–$312.; Yale, 1840, $150.–$210., now $330.–$500., and senior classbook reports average of $956. for four years.

“Is Yale a Rich Man's College?” Yale Review, 3: 117–120 (1894).

Costs based on classbook figures. Whitacre Jessie . “A Course in Personal Accounts.” Journal of Home Economics, 15: 270–72(1923).

A course given at State College of Utah.

“Student Expenses.” Independent, 73: 1332 (1912).

Brief report on University of Missouri student dining-hall, board at $2.40 a week.

“Student Expenses at University of Minnesota.” School and Society, 4: 892 (1916). Data from schedule given to students by president's office. Average for students boarding, $487.; for those at home, $271. Former ranged from 2 per cent less than $250. to six per cent over $750., with 54 per cent between $350. and $549., and with variations by colleges, by lower and upper classes, and by sex groups.

“What a College Year Costs.” Literary Digest, 48: 207 (1914).

Summarizes different views; for example, for Harvard, “unavoidable expenses” $400., plus $300., is a reasonable minimum amount; for Princeton, in 1912–13, college charges varied from under $100. to $800.–900. (Distribution of 1300 bills for college charges:—8 less than $100.; 46, $100.–200.; 76, $200.–300; 95, $300.–400.; 141, $400.–500.; 507, $500.–600.; 422, $600.–800.; 5, $800.–900.). President Shanklin of Wesleyan says, “Much depends on that invisible but all-pervading influence which is called the college atmosphere.”