Inflation Trajectories

[aja8888]

DS will be transferring there from community college in the fall. We live less than an hour away so he will be commuting. SHSU has classes in the Woodlands at the community college campus, but they actually charge more for those classes. That would be a little closer for us (about a 20 minute drive) but it irks me that they charge more for the classes there.

Both our daughters finished at SHSU after taking 2 years at the old Montgomery College (highway 242 just north of the Woodlands) which is now Lone Star College. They commuted from home (The Woodlands) to SHSU in Hunstville.

That was before the University Center was built on 242. Granddaughter wanted to go to A & M, but didn't get in so SAM was the alternative. She actually entered as a 2nd year student (credits from taking courses during high school). SHSU is growing but the tuition is going crazy along with the fees.

 

[aja8888]

Did you know SHSU was originally named the Sam Houston Institute of Technology?

No, that must have been a long while ago!

 

[Midpack]

Cool chart, thanks!

I lived on $200-300/month in college including rent, food & entertainment, along with 2 other roommates. The good old days...

 

[MichaelB]

Did you know SHSU was originally named the Sam Houston Institute of Technology?

<rimshot>

 

[aja8888]

Cool chart, thanks!

I lived on $200-300/month in college including rent, food & entertainment, along with 2 other roommates. The good old days...

Yes, the good old days!

I had the G.I. Bill that paid me $220/month for college (1973 - 1977). That covered my tuition (state college) and some expenses. I worked nights and weekends in a drug store as a cashier to cover the rest. Rent on the downstairs of an old house was $85/month. I had one roommate who split the house expenses.

 

[ziggy29]

The odd thing is, most of the jobs that historically required college are easier to ship overseas than many blue collar jobs, particularly in the trades. Almost any job that is primarily information-based is a prime candidate to be sent off to India and elsewhere.

 

[samclem]

Did you know SHSU was originally named the Sam Houston Institute of Technology?

Before that it was the Texas Institute of Technology, but they thought the abbreviation was unbecoming.

 

[Texas Proud]

I recently talked to a student who was taking some online courses in addition to his bricks and mortar classes. I asked him if the online were cheaper. He said they were $25 more an hour. I would have never guessed that. Our governor a couple years ago threatened to cut university budgets if their tuition increases were above inflation rate. Well somehow magically the schools figured out how to make their budgets work with only CPI increases in tuition. I wouldn't be surprised if they worked around that problem by doubling the parking fees and implementing a campus air oxygen use fee.

My DW is getting her masters and the online courses are more than $25 per hour more expensive... and I think she also has to pay an online course fee of a few hundred dollars... I was very surprised also...

 

[Texas Proud]

Did you know SHSU was originally named the Sam Houston Institute of Technology?

OK>>> lucky I saw MichaeB's response.... funny....


But, it was Sam Houston State Teachers College.... and I think it is the oldest or second oldest college in the state...

 

[eytonxav]

OK>>> lucky I saw MichaeB's response.... funny....


But, it was Sam Houston State Teachers College.... and I think it is the oldest or second oldest college in the state...

Here you go:

Oldest Colleges In Texas

Oldest Colleges in Texas (year founded)

1. Baylor: 1845
1. University of Mary Hardin-Baylor: 1845
3. Austin College: 1849
4. St. Mary's University: 1852
5. Lon Morris College: 1854
6. Trinity University: 1869
6. Weatherford College: 1869
8. Paul Quinn College: 1872
9. Southwestern University: 1873
9. TCU: 1873
9. Wiley College: 1873
12. Huston-Tillotson College: 1875
13. Texas A&M-College Station: 1876
14. Prairie View A&M: 1878
15. Sam Houston State: 1879
16. University of Incarnate Word: 1881
17. Blinn College: 1883
17. UT-Austin: 1883
19. St. Edward's University: 1885
20. Howard Payne University: 1889
20. Texas A&M-Commerce: 1889
22. Texas Wesleyan University: 1890
22. U. of North Texas: 1890
24. Hardin-Simmons: 1891
24. Texas Lutheran University: 1891
26. Southwestern Adventist University: 1894
26. Texas College: 1894
28. Our Lady of the Lake University: 1895
28. UT-Arlington: 1895
30. Clarendon College: 1898
30. St. Philip's College: 1898
32. Jacksonville College: 1899
32. SW Texas State: 1899
32. Tarleton State: 1899
35. Texas Woman's University: 1901
36. Abilene Christian: 1906
37. Wayland Baptist: 1908
38. Lamar State-Port Arthur: 1909
38. West Texas A&M: 1909
40. SMU: 1911
41. East Texas Baptist: 1912
41. Jarvis Christian College: 1912
41. Rice: 1912
44. UT-El Paso: 1913
45. Sul Ross State: 1920
46. Midwestern State: 1922
47. Hill College: 1923
47. Lamar: 1923
47. McMurry University: 1923
47. Schreiner University: 1923
47. Stephen F. Austin State: 1923
47. Texas Tech: 1923
53. North Central Texas College: 1924
53. Paris JC: 1924
55. San Antonio College: 1925
55. Texas A&M-Kingsville: 1925
55. Victoria College: 1925
58. Concordia University: 1926
58. Ranger College: 1926
58. Tyler JC: 1926
61. Southwestern Assemblies of God U.: 1927
61. Texarkana College: 1927
61. U. of Houston: 1927
61. UT-Pan American: 1927
65. Angelo State: 1928
66. Amarillo College: 1929
67. Del Mar College: 1935
67. Kilgore College: 1935
69. Arlington Baptist College: 1939
70. Cisco JC: 1940
71. Howard College: 1945
72. Laredo CC: 1946
72. LeTourneau University: 1946
72. Navarro College: 1946
72. Odessa College: 1946
72. SW Texas JC: 1946
72. Trinity Valley CC: 1946
72. Wharton County JC: 1946
79. Panola College: 1947
79. U. of St. Thomas: 1947
79. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi: 1947
79. Texas Southern: 1947
83. Alvin CC: 1949
83. Southwestern Christian College: 1949
85. University of Dallas: 1956
86. Lubbock Christian: 1957
87. South Plains College: 1958
88. San Jacinto-Central: 1961
89. Texas A&M-Galveston: 1962
90. Grayson CC: 1964
91. Dallas Baptist: 1965
91. Coastal Bend College: 1965
91. McLennan CC: 1965
91. TSTC-Waco: 1965
95. El Centro College: 1966
95. Northwood University: 1966
97. Central Texas College: 1967
97. College of the Mainland: 1967
97. Galveston College: 1967
97. Tarrant CC: 1967
97. TSTC-Harlingen: 1967
102.Angelina College: 1968
102.Brazosport College: 1968
104.Lamar State-Orange: 1969
104.Midland College: 1969
104.UT-Permian Basin: 1969
104.UT-San Antonio: 1969
104.Western Texas College: 1969
109.Eastfield College: 1970
109.Mountain View College: 1970
109.TSTC-West Texas: 1970
109.Vernon College: 1970
113.Amberton: 1971
113.Houston-Clear Lake: 1971
113.Houston CC: 1971
113.Texas A&M-Texarkana: 1971
113.UT-Tyler: 1971
118.Austin CC: 1972
118.North Harris College: 1972
118.Richland College: 1972
121.Houston-Victoria: 1973
121.UT-Brownsville: 1973
123.Houston-Downtown: 1974
123.San Jacinto-North: 1974
125.Cedar Valley College: 1977
126.San Jacinto-South: 1979
127.Kingwood College: 1984
128.Collin County CC: 1985
128.Northeast Texas CC: 1985
130.Palo Alto College: 1987
131.Tomball College: 1988
132.South Texas CC: 1993​

 

[Texas Proud]

Here you go:

Oldest Colleges In Texas

Oldest Colleges in Texas (year founded)
/snip/
15. Sam Houston State: 1879


​

Guess I was told incorrectly... why do these colleges try and brainwash you into false info


OK... looked up in Wiki...

Sam Houston State University (known as SHSU or Sam) was founded in 1879 and is the third oldest public institution of higher learning in the State of Texas.

I just read this and did not know it...

Austin Hall was constructed in 1851 and is the oldest university building west of the Mississippi still in operation. Notably, Sam Houston himself attended and participated in the original dedication of the building


OK... edit to add....

April 21, 1879, founded as Sam Houston Normal Institute
1923: Sam Houston State Teachers College
1965: Sam Houston State College
1969: Sam Houston State University
​

 

[jon-nyc]

What I'm interested in is - why did college costs go up at this rate? What can we do about it? What can we learn from it? Why is it different from so many other things?

Any thoughts on that?

A friend of mine wrote a book on the subject:

Why Does College Cost So Much?: Robert B. Archibald, David H. Feldman: 9780199744503: Amazon.com: Books

Warning: its data driven so it doesn't necessarily support most people's pet theories. The biggest factor is Baumol's cost disease, and it has affected other service industries as well.

FWIW, Clay Christensen, author of The Innovator's Dilemma believes that education is the next major industry that will be subject to disruptive innovation. If that's true, I will have grossly overfunded my son's 529.

 

[eytonxav]

My alma mater is older than all of these, in fact its the oldest continuously operating technological university in both the English-speaking world and the Americas. Can anyone guess what school it is?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Rensselaer_Polytechnic_Institute#cite_note-history-1

 

[REWahoo]

HKU? (Hard Knock University)

 

[eytonxav]

HKU? (Hard Knock University)

Good guess, but thats not a registered college.

 

[FUEGO]

Rensselaer

 

[EvrClrx311]

It is sad to read some of these stories today. One that stuck out to me was the Performing Arts post-graduate from NYU who finished her 6 years of schooling with $128,000 in private loan debt. Federal would not cover the full cost, so she was directed to the private loans from the school itself. At the time the article was written she was paying approximately $10,000 a year and had a job making $27,000 a year. Yes, the job happened to be in her field of study.

What was truly fascinating was all of the assistance she received from NYU in finding ways to get the money to pay for her school. They practically filled out the papers for her, just needed her signature. An investigative team found that the school devoted much funds to this, than they did to the job resource centers to help new graduates find work.

Clearly the student is to blame for the large majority of this... but I couldn't help but question the school here too. You have to wonder how many young adults would be saved from this had they been required to take a Freshmen level course showing estimated average salary rates they'd expect upon graduation. If you're on track to get a job making $25K a year, why on earth would you want to take on $100K+ in student loan debt?

I think too many parents blindly step in line with mantra of encouraging their children to "follow their dreams." This can be dangerous when ignoring the reality of the financial situation they are moving towards, if the dream is to become a Broadway star, social worker, or historian off of a quarter million dollar education.

Not the same story, but a more recent similar one I found:
http://journalism.nyu.edu/publishing/archives/livewire/money_work/gen_debt/index.html

and another...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/your-money/student-loans/29money.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

[eytonxav]

Rensselaer

Yep, RPI. Costs to go there when I attended were much more reasonable vs today's costs and were met with GI Bill + scholarship + a little out of pocket.

 

[Independent]

My thought is both education and medical have something to do with them being funded by third party sources. The institutions keep raising prices because they know the students will just take on more and more loans to pay the cost, the students don't seem to be worried about paying back the loans and in the end another entity is responsible for it. Same sort of thing with medical and insurance.

++

If you think somebody else is paying (and "my future rich self" is somebody else if you're 19), you don't worry about price.

 

[ShortInSeattle]

I went to college in the early 80s. Today's schools pamper their kids a lot more than before. The facilities are much nicer. They have orientation day for parents. The dorms are bigger and many kids have private rooms. The food is better. Everything is wired for free internet. Free computer resources are everywhere. They have workers all over the place cleaning it up and keeping it running. Forget about the days of 6 guys renting a house and eating top ramen. Those days are over.

I think this is a piece of it. I went back to my alma mater (Washington State University) and it's a palace compared to the late nineties. Gorgeous glass and steel buildings, high technology everywhere, state of the art research labs. Interestingly, the business building was as crummy as ever.

Just as I was graduating, they were starting to tack on mandatory "recreation" fees for a fancy new gym they'd built. More perks, more money....

SIS

 

[Independent]

Clearly the student is to blame for the large majority of this... but I couldn't help but question the school here too. You have to wonder how many young adults would be saved from this had they been required to take a Freshmen level course showing estimated average salary rates they'd expect upon graduation. If you're on track to get a job making $25K a year, why on earth would you want to take on $100K+ in student loan debt?

Long before they require a course, they should at least make the information available to students who ask for it.

I expect that if a prospective student asked for salary statistics for all the the graduates with a ____ degree, the school would say "we don't know, but we'll be happy to give you a couple anecdotes about our most successful grads". That's the exact opposite of helping them be realistic.

 

[ERD50]

...
What was truly fascinating was all of the assistance she received from NYU in finding ways to get the money to pay for her school. They practically filled out the papers for her, just needed her signature. An investigative team found that the school devoted much funds to this, than they did to the job resource centers to help new graduates find work.

Clearly the student is to blame for the large majority of this... but I couldn't help but question the school here too.

File this under "Tough Love" if you wish, but if a young adult, ready to invest many tens of thousands in an education hasn't learned the concept of "buyer beware", then when will they learn it?

If I expect the salesperson to be watching out for my interests, I'm going to be disappointed (or worse) more times than not. A young person might need parents to help get this across, and/or it should be taught in high school, but don't count on the college for the straight scoop, they have seats to fill.

I think too many parents blindly step in line with mantra of encouraging their children to "follow their dreams." This can be dangerous when ignoring the reality of the financial situation they are moving towards, if the dream is to become a Broadway star, social worker, or historian off of a quarter million dollar education.

There was an 'interesting' thread on this recently. Ahh, I usually fail with searches, but here you go:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f30/what-do-you-desire-63933.html

A real contrast in views. (edit/add - I responded to the poster who started that thread - didn't realize until after I hit 'submit', but that's OK, he was open to input)

-ERD50