Rising tuition costs in the US aren't the only obstacle to attending college these days. Many Americans struggle with a more basic task: simply figuring out how much a bachelor's degree would cost them,
A new study by Gallup and the higher education foundation Lumina shows that a large majority of people remain convinced of the merits of going to college. But costs deter many from enrolling, while less than a quarter of respondents were able to estimate the cost of earning a bachelor's degree within $5,000 of its true price, the analysis found.
Registration fog
This confusion is particularly problematic as colleges drive up the attendance sticker price to nearly six figures, often as a marketing ploy to signal their exclusivity. Because few students and their families actually pay that price, thanks to financial aid and other supports, focusing on that number can be misleading, experts say.
“People hear that $100,000 and then they make these assumptions that that's what college costs,” Courtney Brown, Lumina's vice president of impact and planning, told CBS MoneyWatch. “This story becomes the myth of what it costs.”
However, it's also hard for people to predict how much college will cost from year to year, since students have to reapply for financial aid every year, while colleges often change tuition and fees, he noted. This can throw students for a loop, especially when they don't have much wiggle room in their budgets.
“Colleges are doing their students a disservice because there is not full disclosure of how much it costs,” Brown said. “The No. 1 recommendation is that institutions need to be more transparent about exactly what it will cost” to earn a degree.
This may partly explain why most respondents were unable to accurately estimate the cost of college. The actual cost of attending an in-state public university is about $15,000 a year, Gallup and Lumina said. But about half of those surveyed said they believed the price was less than $10,000 a year, while a third pegged it at more than $20,000 a year.
Both misperceptions can lead to poor results. For example, people who think college is more expensive than it really is may be less likely to enroll, missing out on critical educational opportunities.
Meanwhile, “those who underestimate the cost may be more worrisome because they are the people who have to take out more loans later,” Brown noted. “They're thinking it's not going to cost that much, and then they realize, 'Oh, wait, I've got to pay for room and board and food and all that other stuff,' and they're the ones who have to take it. grant more loans.”
“It affects everything”
The study, which surveyed nearly 14,000 people, from enrolled students to Americans who never attended college, also highlights the negative impact student debt can have on people's lives.
About 7 in 10 people with student loans said they had delayed at least one major milestone because of the debt, ranging from buying a house to getting married. About 1 in 7 said they had put off getting married or having children because of their college loans, the research showed.
“This is a very important thing to pay attention to because if we want to have thriving communities, we can't have people who are burdened by student loan debt,” Brown said. “If you can't carry out normal life activities because of it, that's a problem for our communities and it affects everything: it affects our health, it affects our democracy, it affects our community life.”
Brown noted that it is important to address student debt through new repayment or forgiveness plans, as the Biden administration is doing, but added that there is also a need to focus on reducing college costs and providing more transparency to students.
“College degrees are important to our workforce today and our future workforce – we know that people who are more educated are healthier, contribute more to our communities and are more satisfied with their jobs” , Brown said.
He added, “But it's not affordable, and we need to address the root cause of that and try to find ways to make it affordable and stop the massive accumulation of student debt that is crippling so many people.”
