I have a friend who's son is entering his senior year in high school and is starting to sweat next years college costs and rightfully so based on what we found. Armed with a glass of wine each, we set out to see what the mean college cost (including room and board) and what student loans were available, their interest rates, and cost. This was no small feat as both the colleges and the student loan lenders (both inexpressive and government) make it about as clear as mud.
The first step was to pick five mean community colleges, state universities, and high end inexpressive colleges to get the numbers from. We wanted to see the spread and come up with a inexpensive mean that was fairly exact on today's costs. When in doubt, we did round up since we wanted to get real world figures and didn't want to cut any corners that might not be ready for everyone. After we got our mean costs, then we would crusade out all the separate student loan possibilities.
Current College Costs and pupil Loans Interest Rates
Here's what we ended up with on mean community college annual costs. Tuition, room and board, and mean fees came to about ,000 per year or a total of nearby ,000. State universities were a dinky more than double, about ,000 per year or ,000 total. And the top end Ivy League type colleges came in at a whopping ,000 per year for a total cost of 0,000.
These figures are all based on as exact information as we could find on the respective websites of each school. Not exactly scientific but a very good mean to use for determining what the cost is for important student loans for all three categories. These numbers are based on 9 months (some schools had quarters rather than semesters) and didn't allow for any special discounts or grants from the colleges (and any did have some good offers that may cut the cost).
Even with the most recent changes in the Government Student Loan programs, you can't count on any grants or scholarships due to the maze of qualifications. But if you qualify due to financial reasons, there is a good chance to get a government grant for up to 00 per year. But we excluded any other financial aid in our explore to keep it comparable in general. Most students will qualify for some help in financial aid be it discounts, scholarships based on merit, or even part time work funded by the school or government programs.
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