Last week I received one of those letters from my Alma mater. You know, the ones that gently suggest that since you attended this school many years ago you should feel an obligation to send them even more money. I'm sorry, but my old school is doing quite well without my donation, and I guarantee you that I can have a bigger impact on someones well being by donating elsewhere.
Just for fun I went to their website to check on the current cost of attending this prestigious university. I was astounded! The current undergraduate hourly rate is a whopping $1007 per credit hour. For a part-timer, taking 6 hours a semester that's $12,084 per year. Full time tuition is $28,060 per year.....unbelievable. How does the average young person even begin to attend this university without being buried in debt.
I've always been a numbers person, and when I made the decision to attend this school I spent many hours figuring out how to afford the tuition, which at that time was $450 a semester. I was newly married, from a family of modest means, and the only option was to work my way through. I figured that by working full-time summer jobs, and part-time jobs during the school year, I could earn enough money to pay for tuition. That was the plan, and that's what we did.
Tuition increased every year I was there, and was $600 a semester when I graduated....debt free. By working a multitude of jobs paying $2-3 per hour I was able to pay for tuition, while my wife's wages covered our modest living expenses. Today, a young person would have to make $25 per hour working the same schedule just to cover tuition.....a virtual impossibility.
Somewhere along the way we have robbed our young people of the satisfaction of working and paying there own way because of the astronomically increasing cost of a quality education. Where does it end. No one ever seems to question these constant increases, we just assume it's the norm....I think it's time for some accountability, but what do I know.
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