Why Americans are more cautious about the cost of
college
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[August 17, 2018]
By Gail MarksJarvis
CHICAGO - Since he was in fourth grade,
Dennis Nolte’s stepson Jacob has been tacking Massachusetts Institute of
Technology posters to his bedroom wall and dreaming of attending some
day.
But now that Jacob is 18 and applying to colleges, Nolte has delivered
an uncomfortable message: “If manna comes from heaven, and you get
enough scholarships, you can go to MIT,” Nolte told him. “Otherwise,
getting a good education that’s cheap and affordable in-state makes more
sense.”
Nolte, who is a financial planner in Winter Park, Florida, compares the
high cost of a private university such as MIT to Florida state schools,
where the total cost of tuition, room and board and fees comes in at
less than a third of such elite schools.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2018/Aug/17/images/ads/current/almh_lda_FFARM_2017.png)
MIT estimates total costs for its upcoming academic year at $70,240,
while state schools in Florida come in at less than $20,000.
With massive media attention on the high cost of college along with
lessons of the Great Recession, even people who can afford to pay “are
much more circumspect about the cost of college,” Nolte said.
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![](../images/081718pics/busine61.jpg)
Graduating students arrive for Commencement Exercises at Boston
College in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. on May 20, 2013.
REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo
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His impressions are borne out in a survey by student lender Sallie Mae released
this week. Despite a strong economy, parents and students are far more cautious
about paying for college now than they were in the throes of the last recession,
according to How America Values College, the Sallie Mae survey of 1,907 parents
and students.
About 90 percent of respondents consider college a good investment, but that
does not mean attending at any cost.
Some 78 percent of families said they are focusing on the price of a college
education. Even before applying for the 2017 school year, 70 percent of students
said they discarded colleges because they were too expensive. That is a huge
change from 2008, when only 42 percent of students limited pricier choices
immediately.
Parents are also taking a tougher line, with 46 percent eliminating expensive
colleges at the outset, compared with only 39 percent in 2008.
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