The eyes of Texas are upon your debt: Collegiate Cost Analysis

Today I read and reposted an article entitled, 'Don't Even Get Me Started Mythical Bootstraps Student' that proposed it was not possible, or at least extremely implausible, for a student without familial support to graduate from college debt free. The article was challenged on having too high of expected tuition and board, the author used the one in their city (University of Washington in Seattle). The author also concluded that anyone that graduated ten years ago could not relate because the numbers had changed too greatly- this was also challenged. So, I decided to do my own research.

I wanted to find out for myself the numbers behind today’s higher education landscape. So, I have pulled information for both flagship and satellite schools in both metropolitans and small towns. I have focused on one state to eliminate the policy differences between states, and I chose Texas because it is the greatest of all the states. University of Texas at Austin will represent a flagship university in a metropolitan; Texas A&M at College Station represents a flagship university in a small town; University of Texas at Dallas represents a satellite in a metropolitan; and Stephen F. Austin (SFA) represents a small university in the middle of nowhere.

I expected UT-Austin and UT-Dallas to have higher living costs, A&M and SFA to have higher transportation cost, and for tuition to be highest at UT-Austin and A&M because these are the larger universities. All of these numbers are from CollegeBoard.

	UT-Austin	A&M	UTD	SFA
Tuition & Fees	$9,794	$8,424	$11,168	$7,344
Books	$874	$1,340	$1,200	$1,107
Room and Board	$10,422	$8,200	$8,364	$8,186
Transport	$1,200	$500	$1,400	$2,800
Personal Expenses	$2,424	$2,262	$1,936	$1,729
Total	$24,714	$20,726	$24,068	$21,166

The most and least expensive schools are the two flagship schools. There may be wiggle room in the bottom three categories, but CollegeBoard has more time, resources, and man power to do that research so I’ll let it slide.

I'll also note that UT-Austin and A&M have significantly more opportunities for their students with a tie of 108 majors. SFA offers a respectable 70 majors, however has no engineering department. UT-Dallas comes in at fourth with 43 majors, however has no civil or chemical engineering despite generally being seen as an "engineering school." 

From my experience of living in Austin near campus I can attest that rent has skyrocketed in a very short time. In the span of one year my friend’s 300 sq ft studio’s rent went from $400 to $700, while my 400 sq ft studio went from $550 to $900. Neither one us could afford to stay. So I tried to live in student housing in East Austin for $400 a month including bills. Turned out it wasn’t really student housing. My roommates include a forty-year old woman who frequently entertained young gentleman and a drug dealer. In my complex, which was near several just like it, there was one murder I knew about, several beatings, and daily drug deals.

In addition to having the lowest yearly cost, College Station also has the lowest unemployment rate, at just above 5% it is great, and it is significantly better than Dallas and Richardson, 8.6% and 7.1% respectively. Nacogdoches and Austin round out the unemployment rates at 6.5% and 6.3%- all lower than the national rate of 9.1%. So, if a student is hoping to find a job during college A&M is the best job environment. However, the data does not include the salary or educational requirements of the available jobs. So, those numbers may not be as bleak or as hopeful as they seem.

I saw a commenter detail how they had put them self through college ten years ago and would only allow the concession that some people don’t have her work ethic. Someone else said there would be some increased difficulty, but did not seem to think the increase was significant. So how much has tuition increased in the past ten years at UT Austin? Try 134%! In an article written in UT Austin’s campus paper ‘The Daily Texan’ Collin Eaton wrote the article entitled, ‘ U. Texas tuition rates increased 134% in last decade.’ To the point and easy to find when googling, “Texas tuition increase over past decade” thank you Mr. Easton. In 1999 tuition to UT-Austin was $4020, in 2010 incoming freshman paid $9418. From 1990 to 2003 the yearly increase was 13% and from 2003 to 2009 there was an 8% increase.

Then there’s community college. Room and board, books, and personal expenses would stay nearly the same, transportation would increase in most cases as a car would likely be necessary, but tuition would decrease. The national average tuition for a full-time student at a community college is $2713- a $4631 savings. But the question a student has to ask is, will attending community college affect my chances of being accepted into a 4-year university, and my research answers yes.

An entering freshman has a 47% chance of being accepted to UT-Austin compared to the 41% chance on a transfer student. UT-Dallas, however, has a 15% increased chanced from the 50% acceptance rate of freshman. At Texas A&M, the least expensive of the four, the school that ties for available majors, decreases from an acceptance rate of freshman at 69% to a 48% acceptance of transfer students.

New York Times reported that two-thirds of 2008 graduates left school with debt, a significant increase from the less than half of graduates in 1993. Of the students in debt in 2008, most had at least $24 000 in debt.

Location and college size does not make a difference among the four four-year universities, and attending a community college may make it difficult to be accepted to a four-year university to complete a degree. Lack of willpower, diligence, or work ethic is not enough to explain two thirds of students graduating in tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt. It is far more likely that the debt is due to the drastic increase in tuition over the past decade.