According to the infographic posted on the eCampus Blog, tuition is rising at an average rate of 5.5% every year. Students at a public 2 year institution should expect to get the cheapest education, paying on average $ 2,713 for 1 year of classes. Private 4 year colleges come with the highest price tag, averaging around $ 37,000. This totals the cost of a 4 year education at a private college to be approximately $ 148,000.
At such high costs students are racking up student loan debt like never before. Over two thirds of all graduating students have some type of student loan debt. The average student loan debt is now $ 23,186 per student. On a repayment plan at $ 175 each month, students can expect to pay off this amount in 33 years, paying over $ 45,000 in interest along the way. This leads over 7% of all student loan debtors to default within the first year of repayment. “These figures could make your head spin. By publishing statistics like this in an easily digestible manner we would hope that we can help educate our customers to make good financial decisions”, said Matt Montgomery, President and CEO of eCampus.com. “At eCampus.com we strive to provide great deals for our students so that college isn’t so difficult on their future finances. In addition to our already great deals we are now renting textbooks and saving students more money than ever before.”
The infographic also details the difference in earnings a college student might experience depending on their degree and major choice. According to the infographic, engineering students stand to make the most money during their careers, with petroleum engineers making the most at $ 157,000 per year. On average, students who graduate with a bachelors degree will make half a million dollars more per year than people with just a high school diploma, but still $ 1.3 million less than someone with a doctoral degree.
Here is the reason why.1. Businesses started pushing the cost of job training onto colleges. Then everyone had to go to college.