College - Then & Now

Many of my nieces and nephews have already graduated college. Another starts in a few weeks. It started me thinking about how things have changed since I was that age.  Back in the 1980s:

• You had a hot pot, not a microwave.
• You had a typewriter, not a laptop.
• You had a hall phone, not a cell phone.
• You used a check book, not an ATM card (they were new back then!)
• You brought batteries, not chargers.
• You brought a big boom box (the bigger the better!) not a tiny MP3 player.
• If you had access to a computer it used big floppy disks, not a USB flash drive.
• We had hot air popcorn poppers...yes, an appliance just to make popcorn.
• We did reaserch using the books in the library, not the internet.
• And when we needed articles we had to photocopy them, not download them.
• Tuition at a private 4 year institution averaged $8,451 - not $27,293 (those are averages - many cost much more during both periods!)

According to FinAid, tuition costs increase by an average of 8% every year - doubling every 9 years.  "An 8% college inflation rate means that the cost of college doubles every nine years. For a baby born today, this means that college costs will be more than three times current rates when the child matriculates in college."  That means for Danielle, who was born in 2006, tuition will average more than $85,000 a year - roughly ten times what it averaged when I was in college.

Of course, my parents were confused that colleges no longer had curfews; that men and women lived in the same dormitory; and that we didn't all hang out around a piano singing college fight songs when we drank. 

Somethings never change, however. Students still need some basics.  For instance:

1. 3-way Metal Manual Can Bottle Opener (for canned soup or chili and  bottles of beer!)
2. Apollo Precision Tools DT9706 39-Piece General Tool Set (things will break)
3. Sewing Essentials, Sewing Kit with Scissor and 10 Threaded Needles (the needles are already threaded!)
4. Johnson & Johnson First Aid Kit, Safe Travels (Pack of 2) (one for the room, one for the car)

For more information about inflation and tuition go to:

Digest of Education Statistics http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d07/tables/dt07_320.asp

FinAid website http://www.finaid.org/savings/tuition-inflation.phtml