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Rising College Costs Are Due Largely to Books, Room, and Board, Study Finds

November 17, 2011, 12:01 am

Despite the widely publicized rising sticker prices on tuition, about two-thirds of the increase in the cost of attending a four-year college from 2000 to 2009 came from nontuition sources, such as books and off-campus room and board, according to a report released on Thursday by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. The average amount that students paid, after subtracting savings from scholarships and grants, increased by nearly $3,000, while net tuition prices grew by only about $1,000 over roughly the same period. The overall cost to attend a two-year college also grew, by $1,333, despite the fall of net tuition prices by $849. The authors of the report suggest that more needs to be done to control nontuition costs related to college. The report’s estimates are based on data from the U.S. Department of Education.

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  • mkant69

    If you subtract grants, which are based on full college costs, from just tuition, and you pick the start and end dates of the analysis carefully, sure you’ll find that all the other costs are “responsible” for the increase in college costs. Such an analysis is meaningless. See http://www.fastweb.com/financial-aid/articles/3342-conflicting-information-about-trends-in-net-college-costs for further discussion.

  • 22221103

    I wish they would do a study comparing the cost increases from 1980 or so.  I know for a fact that when I graduated in 1985 all my fees didn’t exceed $400.  I had no debt.  Of course, the student union had rectangle plastic tables and you had one cafeteria line to choose your food.  The rec center was slightly old but it worked.  I didn’t live in student housing, so I couldn’t tell you the cost or conditions of it.  I bought most of my books used and then resold them at the end of the semester.  Bottom line is students are paying for the bells and whistles whether their ringing those bells or not.

  • Unemployed_Northeastern

    So, I am to believe that the nearly $20,000 increase in the cost of my undergrad from 2000 to 2009 is due to a couple of new dorms and an increase in the cost of a biology textbook?  Um, OK…

  • 22108469

    Although I can’t put my finger on it now, I recall seeing an article that pointed to a threefold increase in the number of people incarcerated in my state (despite flat population growth) over the period of time that the costs of public higher education began zooming upward. Hasn’t state support of higher education declined dramatically all across the country since the 1980s?

  • rich_hershman

    The notion that course material affordability has not received attention over the last eight years is almost laughable as is suggesting book costs have increased more than tuition and fees. 

    One thing worth noting off the top is the way financial aid is disbursed -it first goes to tuition and fees, then if there is anything left over then it is disbursed to other costs of attendence, so suggesting net tuition cost against other areas of cost of attendance is a bit silly when aid is commonly not disbursed across the cost of attendance. 

    The word “book” appears once in this entire report, which is a bit telling.  The report is based on IPEDS.  IPEDS DOES NOT report data on books.  What IPEDS does is report a broad category called “books and supplies” which has become a catch all category for numerous cost of attendance formula items from lab and course fees to software.  The NCES provides next to little guidance to schools on what they are allowed to include in that cost of attendance calculation for books and supplies and in fact the way schools approach this cost of attendence catgeory differ significantly.  California institutions routinly use the California Student Aid Commission for their IPEDS estimates and the commission data has over 41% of their estimated costs for books and supplies are not books.  For 2011-2012 the commission estimates for Freshman budgeting purposes books are $906.  In 2001-2002 the commission estimated book costs were $702 -essentially the commission estimates that book costs for budgeting purposes have increased about $200 over 10 years, not bad considering all the technology being added to course materials which are primarily driving price increases.   

    Other large sample student surveys have found student spending on textbooks have been essentially flat averaging about $600 to $700 a year for many years now.
    If you factor in the American Opportunity Tax Credit which was started in 2009, recent market developments like e-textbooks, textbook rental programs, and open access course materials and greater faculty sensitivity to textbook costs, net student spending on books is actually starting to decline.

    Researchers and policy analysts need to start looking more deeply at what IPEDS is collecting and its limitations and look beyond to other sources of data.  To the authors credit they do highlight some of the limitations of this data, but that gets lost in reporting.

  • abcde1234

    If they had only gone for the 40′ climbing wall, instead of the 45′ climbing wall, perhaps things would be different.

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