Ouch... just got bill for son's CC course

[Brenda in MA]

So we just got the bill for son's one 4-credit CC course for the fall -- the price works out to $194/credit. I just cannot believe this, as when my oldest was at the same CC five years ago, his courses worked out to $123/credit. This makes an increase of 58% in five years. I know that this is much more affordable than many other colleges, but a 58% increase in five years? I also found out this morning that they will be charging for parking passes starting this year (which used to be free).

 

Anyone else's CC have this much of a price increase in so short a time?

 

Brenda

[Lori D.]

So we just got the bill for son's one 4-credit CC course for the fall -- the price works out to $194/credit. I just cannot believe this, as when my oldest was at the same CC five years ago, his courses worked out to $123/credit. This makes an increase of 58% in five years. I know that this is much more affordable than many other colleges, but a 58% increase in five years? I also found out this morning that they will be charging for parking passes starting this year (which used to be free).

 

Anyone else's CC have this much of a price increase in so short a time?

 

Brenda

 

 

 

Not the CC, although it has gone up a bit. But the local state university has skyrocketed. Six years ago, it cost $5,000 per YEAR for in-state students. Now it is $5,000 per SEMESTER for in-state students! ! ! And when I was doing some other research, that university had a 264% increase in tuition over a 10-year period (2001 to 2011). :blink: Parking passes are $400-600 a year, depending on how far you want to walk (all the parking is off-campus.) So much for it being cheaper to live at home and go to the local university...

 

 

ETA:

To cover rising costs and plummeting state funding, our CC has a "differential tuition" scale, with those courses requiring more teacher or lab time costing more. We still are quite cheap though, with the cost per unit = $65-90, depending on what kind of class it is. So, dual enrollment of a one-semester 4-unit foreign language class runs about $260 + fees + books.

 

No free dual enrollment (except for a few specific vocational classes), but no fee for parking -- the local CC has 3 campuses, each WAY out on the outskirts of town, so it's cheaper to buy a semester bus pass ($175) and then it's either a 15-min, 50-min, or 75-min. bus ride one-way to whichever campus is holding the class. (Of course, both DS's programs are based out of one of the farther-away campuses...)

[FaithManor]

_{We seen similar tuition hikes in Michigan due to state funding for the CC's and public uni's being way down. Last year, U of M, received less than 17% of it's budget from public monies. Really, that just makes it another private school.}

 

_{Our local cc, admittedly NOT a good one which makes this 10 times worse, has doubled in price per credit hour. They still offer a steep discount for dual enrollment, but then cut back quite a bit on the courses and times open to high school students.}

 

_{I don't know what parking fees are at U of M. DD had a friend whose home was within a very comfortable walking distance of campus and she was allowed to park there...plus there is a very nice bus system for getting around campus so really, one just needed to get into the vacinity in ored to be able to park and ride.}

 

_{It's getting bad out there.}

 

_Faith

[mamato4]

Our cc ended their high school scholars program where high schoolers pay only $125 for the first class; 2nd and subsequent classes are charged the regular rate. I managed to sign up dd for a class in the fall early enough before the cc changed their policy so this will be her last class at that great price.

[creekland]

Our cc was $250 per credit hour (not per class) + fees a couple of years ago... and that had gone up from roughly $200 per credit hour for oldest a couple years before that. I'm not sure I'd want to look now.

[Candid]

I actually think you might be thankful that the fees went up. How different states handled the shortfalls of the last five years varied and in some states they cut funding but did not allow the colleges to increase tuition enough to cover that cut. If you look in California threads you'll see that many CA folks are talking about not using their local wonderful universities at all because of the horror stories at not being able to take needed classes.

[Jenny in Florida]

I am so lucky. My son is taking 9 hours of dual credit at the cc next year and it is costing me around 360 total. it is around 120 for a 3 hour class. It just makes sense. He is going to graduate with about 58 hours before he heads off to college, and we will have saved a lot of money.

 

I'm feeling very lucky, too. Our local community college tuition is $99 per credit hour, and they regularly win awards and recognition for being among the best in the country.

 

Tuition is waived for dual enrolled students. (And I just checked and discovered they don't even charge for parking decals.)

[Wheres Toto]

Our local CC is $134/credit which includes parking and student id, for an in-county student.

 

Tuition and fees at the state university my oldest attends is about $15,000/year.

[ThisIsTheDay]

:ohmy: WOW. Reading threads on here before, I knew that our CC per credit cost is high (~$125/hour), but I had no idea any existed that were as much as yours. I think that's equal to a state university credit here.

 

Just wow.

[Barbara H]

It is discouraging for sure and books aren't cheap either. State budgets hit in the recession have passed that along to public schools.

[G5052]

Our local CC is $134/credit which includes parking and student id, for an in-county student.

 

Tuition and fees at the state university my oldest attends is about $15,000/year.

 

 

Almost the same here (different state). Community college tuition/fees for 18 credit hours is $2400 and at both state universities that mine could commute to, 18 credit hours is $7500.

 

Thankfully the community college has no problem at all with transfers even to public ivies and nationally-known private schools, so mine will start there unless a huge amount of merit aid comes through (unlikely from what I've been told).

[Laura in CA]

In CA it's still free for dual enrollment (if there is room in the classes), but the price per credit has skyrocketed. When my older son took a CC class in 2009-2010, it cost regular students $18/credit. Now it is $46/credit (2013-14). This is obviously an increase of over 150%! Of course, it started out ridiculously cheap ... and is still a good deal, so no complaints here.

 

I read somewhere (Lynn O'Shaughnessy's website?) that 9.4% of all college students in the U.S. are enrolled at a California community college -- so perhaps it is economy of scale ...

 

Oh, here it is: http://www.thecolleg...llege-students/

Lynn's article "20 Surprising Statistics about College Students"

 

Anyway, I don't mean to hijack! And I feel your pain, Brenda -- my son will be taking calculus-based physics this coming year NOT at our local CC, which would be FREE (the class is full and there is a long waiting list), but at a Cal State university considerably farther away -- for $1500/QUARTER ... Anyway, your post helps me feel better about that cost! (and we are planning that he will only do that for one quarter, and take second-semester physics at the CC -- that class should have room for him ...)

 

And to be fair, that is *full price* for the Cal State, and he *could* take a full load and not pay a penny more ...

 

~Laura

[bugs]

Brenda, I am shocked as well!  15 years ago I took master's classes at a good private university and reeled over the $190/ credit hour.  

 

I feel lucky as well, dd can dual enroll for only the cost of books and student fees.  Last year she took three quarters at a full load and it cost us less than $1000.

[Dana]

Looks like our cc is roughly $170 per credit hour, plus fees. Books of course are absurd.

State started lottery a while ago and so legislators have significantly cut what they contribute to the public colleges. At this cc, they've got FT people teaching 18 credit hours as their regular load to help make up for budget cuts. It's absurd.