Why is Oregon so fucking expensive???

And paying that much for an education in Florida is an affront to education.

It boggles my mind that people spend more than $50k total on school just to get a degree that gets a job paying $45k.

Sources: US Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

Tools: R (data processing and analysis), Excel, QGIS

EDIT: This map is by semester not by year!

Notes: This map depicts the average cost of attending college in each US State. The data are depicted using In-State costs since most students in the United States attend college in their home state. The US Department of Education lists the costs of attending college as tuition and associated fees, room and board, ground transportation, and books and other school supplies. This map averages the cost of living on or off campus. A Title IV post-secondary institution is a college or university that participates in the federal student aid program. These institutions are highly regulated by the US Department of Education and are required to report their costs annually. This map is only based on baccalaureate (bachelor’s degree) or baccalaureate-equivalent institutions. As with all my work, I love hearing your feedback. So if you have any praise, constructive criticism or have any questions, please let me know! As always, be respectful in the comments, be kind to each life form and be kind to yourself. Happy Holidays Reddit!

P.S. I've been on hiatus from making maps since I'm currently in grad school but this one has been cooking for awhile. If you're ever looking for maps, GIS analysis or data analysis for your own projects, reach out to me and let's start a conversation!

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I feel like due to a large scale the colour range should have been a little more

Like say maybe even green or say red. Because from what I see highest/lowest is almost 4 with there being data at almost every interval in between. That would have bought out the inequality also a little more so you know say, you can also tell a story with the data along with it already looking good

Is this the average cost of the degree or the average cost of each year?

This is per semester, right? No way it is all 4 years. And by year doesn’t make sense either.

Please advise if this is 1) By semester or 2) by year or 3) total 4-year degree cost.

My experience is it is per semester.

/a word

The average cost of college in the US is $35k per student per year so I think it is per year.

It is by semester! I apologize!

That’s the problem. The ones taking on the loans aren’t realizing schools and loan issuers are just taking advantage of them.

I have $10k tied up in a b.s and mba, guessing I am showing my age, mostly state schools and some CC

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How is the average calculated? Is it weighted by the number of students paying each level of tuition?

Private vs public and with our without housing/meals ext...?

Interestingly Florida has the lowest in state tuition for public institutions of all 50 states. So there must be some pricey private schools that skew the average

Private and public and as mentioned on the map, it includes all associated costs including housing and meals

So many private schools have a MSRP but many students go for reduced or even free. Of course this data is so hard to obtain. TY for responding

That is not by semester.

This is weird that it combines public and private schools but then breaks it down by in state and out of state. Seems pointless.

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Yeah OR being so much more then WA for instance seems weird. Are there just a couple schools jacking up the average?

OR, IA and VT is surprising. Other dark blue states have Ivy Leagues, non-Ivy high-ranked private schools (e.g. Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, MIT etc.) and elite liberal art schools.

Including room & board + ground transportation into education costs is so irrational. Those aren't educational expenses; they're living expenses.

$26k~ per semester for tuition in WV as an example is absurd to begin with, when Tuition is ~$8-10k per year there at a university and even less for community college. You can get an entire 4-yr college education for less than the price listed on this for one semester.

The cost of education isn't even 20%~ of the costs being claimed here in the most expensive public university case, let alone the cheaper ones.

I think the private colleges are skewing the data for these states. I graduated from Iowa State in 2020 and my costs were nowhere near what is shown on this map.

Getting an education is like healthcare.. Both will fuck you up.

I went to college in Canada for about 8-9k per year (home province). USA is wild man. It was almost possible to pay for school while working over the summer.

People with just a bachelors degree make, on average, $1 million more in lifetime earnings than those without.

$10k~ WVU/yr
$8.5k~ Marshall/yr
$8k~ WVSU/yr
$5k~ Community College/yr

OP's chart claims $200k~ for a 4-year degree. It's nowhere close to the actual costs associated with education, it's inflated by including normal living expenses and claiming those as education costs.

Food, travel costs (car), housing, etc. aren't educational expenses; they're living expenses that adults have to do regardless of being in school or not. Attributing them to education is absurd.

I graduated in 2019 in the US and it cost about 12k per year. No idea how they came up with these numbers.

The is the cost of everything; housing, food, transportation, etc. Not just tuition.

Amd please suggest to me how i would attend a college without those expenses if i didnt live next to that university? It's a necessary expense and therefore rightly included.

These aren't tuition costs, they are the cost of everything you need while going to school including your car, housing, etc. It's a ridiculous graph to try and inflate the numbers.

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They added all your living expenses too. It's absurd.

So this wouldn’t just be cost of attendance. It’s also room and meal plan per year.

You would have to pay those expenses whether you were in school or not. They are living expenses, not education expenses.

Yes, I understand that and my costs were still nowhere near these numbers

People who don't go to college have to pay for food, transportation, and housing too. They have nothing to do with your education expenses.

If you pay $10-20k~ for food, car, apartment as a non-college student, and you become a college student... you didn't suddenly add another $10-20k in yearly educational expenses for those living expenses.

It's not an educational expense.

Since it’s not explicit I don’t think it’s fair to show it that way.

And even then, that’s still way more than what I payed going to a state school. So again, I just don’t know where they got this data.

Where did you live? 12k per year isn't even enough for a cheap apartment and food.

This including private schools makes it completely disingenuous. Hardly anyone going to private schools pays full tuition and the ones the do are often from affluent parents.

I guess if you didn’t go to college it would all be free? Lol, what a stupid question.

It also includes private schools which are much much expensive than public. Super misleading in my opinion.

Sorry, 12k was just for tuition.

I meant the total shown on my state is about double what I payed including everything.

You are correct, it does. The big WV private posh universities are 6x~ more expensive than community college, 3-5x~ more expensive than the public universities.

Can't speak for the other states, but it absolutely inflates the costs.

Maybe I should clarify: college is great, getting a degree that limits you into a low paying career isn't.

While i hear what you are saying...It is an expense. If my daughter wanted to go to a top school, she needs to consider room and board. If she wanted to get it from a local community college, she would live at home..... you must provide this cost in calculations. Otherwise you are not being realistic to what it takes to attend that school

State college is free in Connecticut

Where the hell are you getting this data? This is made up, at least for California for public universities.

https://www.calstate.edu/attend/paying-for-college/csu-costs

My alma mater breaks down to:

• Estimated tuition and fees: $7,806
• Estimated cost of books and supplies: $1,970
• Total: $9,776 per year

Even if you did the more expensive University of California, it’s no where near $35k per year.

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/tuition-financial-aid/tuition-cost-of-attendance/

The UC breaks down to:

• UC tuition: $13,752
• Campus fees: $1,600
• Books and supplies: $1,300
• Total: $16,652 per year.

How are you skewing the stats to be over 3x more then the real costs of education? Food, healthcare, lodging, transportation, and personal life choice fees are not education expenses. Those are costs for just living.

It’s not. These numbers are not the average cost that Oregon students pay. The two largest schools by students, by far, are UofO and OSU which cost ~13-14k for yearly in state tuition.

The only way it could be this high is if it’s something like the average of all Oregon school rack rates, which is def not the same thing.

Yeah with room, board and all costs in the last few years I think I spent like 30k for a full year at iowa. It’s really skewed by our private schools

We have had 18 year old kids signing loans for life changing sums of money and they still won’t know what that really entails unless they take a finance class.

All higher education in New Mexico is free for New Mexico residents.

Signed,

A New Mexico resident

When I graduated college and got my first job, I made less than a waiter. But now I make six figures, and if I hadn't gone to college I'd still be a waiter. That job that pays $45k is the first rung on a ladder, and given the median income in the US is $33k, it's a pretty high first rung.

Exactly. I went to school in Virginia and in state tuition was $18k and out of state was $32k. Not sure where the extra $18 k comes from but it also says that the average cost of living on/off campus is included in the cost listed. But my rent off campus there in a nice place was $450 a month so still lost there.

People need to get of the stigma of community college. Max $1500 a term. And there is aid to help pay that

I know for a fact the In state for Arizona public’s is way less and the out of state is prob more. This also doesn’t account for international students that pay 3x the amount as US Citizens

It's including room and board for each state too.

This is insane. I want to regionally well regarded private school for less than that and I'm 38. It was probably a mistake, but luckily worked out for me. The idea that this is now the average for my state is unthinkable. A couple decades ago we had one of the strongest state college programs in the country and now you're telling me a four year degree averages 120k? It's completely unsustainable.

Saw that but it’s Still not enough. Room and board is roughy similar to in state tuition at those two schools which would put the ave at ~28k.

Thousands of students commute to PSU, also, and pay zero room and board.

Even if they wanted to include private schools it should be weighted by number of students attending each school in order to get an accurate average. Otherwise some small school with like 2,000 students charging like 40,000/year is absurdly pulling up the average from the larger state schools that charge way less

This fact of $1 million more in a lifetime is extremely outdated, just like the housing market and or the ‘American Dream’. It used to be so perhaps 15-20 years ago, I would absolutely Love you to go around to the current grads and generations and grab a poll from them- infact, 50% of population don’t end up using their degrees they spent 75+ grand on in 2022, now that’s a current fact that you can Google

I think for many universities those would be tacted on to the base fee. Meal plans have always been extra ime.

Does this include the living costs or not?

Fewer students applying- not a comment on the services either just fewer students. I was reading another post the other day about how the declining number of students was impacting smaller schools the hardest/potentially forcing them to close in the near future.

>50% of population don’t end up using their degrees they spent 75+ grand on in 2022, now that’s a current fact that you can Google

but that would include people that say got a degree in Engineering but work in Consulting - you're still going to need a bachelors degree to work in consulting no matter what it is

It included cost of living from what I can gather. Texas is pretty much in the same cost realm as Cali. Our biggest universities by size are all public and cost (about) the same.

I graduated in 2019, It was just over 10k a year for me at a Texas public school. The above includes living expenses as well, which is sort of bullshit.

Do you? Or do you just need to learn the ropes, start entry level and progress your way up, ending with $0 in debt

i've never heard of a recognised consulting company that will hire you out of high school, maybe you know of some?

I do indeed, their called apprenticeships, but on that matter, how much do consultants make? 6 figures?

I just checked my school in Va, top 20 engineering school, I graduated in 1993. At the time I graduated tuition was around $5k yr, now it's about $12k.

That’s crazy. How does anyone afford that

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So barely above inflation, not to mention the increased value of an engineering degree. Sounds like it’s probably overall cheaper nowadays. Go Heels.

There is a $20k+ difference between in state and out of state in the SE US. This data is crap.

fewer students, you say? better increase tuition to compensate...

I see you also read the post from the other day xD

Combining public and private doesn't make any sense. The California State system isn't that expensive. Especially if you do two years in CC. Even UC's aren't that much more in tuition.

Aw shit I wish I would have looked at this before I got 2 B.S. degrees in Oregon. Or done any thinking at all, I guess. Youth is wasted on the young.

Are you really paying 10% of a house for college? Wow

I feel like a douchebag every time I see the cost to go to college in the US.
I live in Denmark, and we do pay quite a lot in taxes, but our healthcare is free, and you actually get paid for your tuition
The rates right now is $942 per month when you live on your own.
If you still live at home, it's based on your parents income.

When ever I see US politicians talk about the Middel East, and that people aren't allowed to attend college, then I can't stop thinking to myself how many US citicens that can't afford to attend college even in the US!

There most be a better way so everybody has the same chances of education.

Non-American here: does the tution fee differ from course to course? For example, a degree in medicine costs more than a degree in history in my country.

That's the neat part, they don't.

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Why are the highest prices mostly in Blue States?

My Nephew Jst Signed a Full Football Scholarship w/Stanfiord, I looked at his pprwrk & it’s 83Racks x 4!

I pay 2000 in the netherlands

Whatever career pays $45k sounds like garbage. That’s $21.63/hour. You’d have to have zero skill to be paid that. We can’t even find college grads to interview unless we offer 70k+ salaries right out of school.

You mean Go Hokies.

Consultants make big money. It’s insane. Many folks quit their jobs to make 2-3x as much as a consultant. 100k would be the low end.

My mom who dropped out of college was parroting conservative talking points against student loan forgiveness until I explained the changes in cost to her. If the cost was the same as the 80s and 90s it wouldn't be a problem similarly if incomes from jobs that you can get with an average degree had increased since the 90s. The problem is that costs have ballooned while incomes and stay mostly the same. The math doesn't add up yet young people are still told to go to college to get a good job and many professions require college education if not additional schooling. Forgiveness helps but we really need regulations on how much publicly funded universities can charge residents of their states. It doesn't make sense if the average income is 40-50k to charge 15k a year in tuition alone.

Exactly, was hoping for pHyR3 to reply but yours will do. And what percentage of the U.S. population is making 100k +? The answer is 5.4% Instead of us bickering and arguing about a topic that involves the top 5.4% of the job market- which duh, yes, a degree at minimum is obviously going to help you throughout your lifetime, let’s get back to the original point of this conversation which has to do with the other 95% of the job market that makes under 6 figures.

Can you please enlighten me what campus fees are? And how are books 1300 bucks? There's libraries. This is so foreign to my European ass.

Georgia-my education was highly subsidized. I basically got payed to go to school

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Not everyone has the option to live at home. Living at home while going to school is a privilege; and yes it saves kids money, but you as the parent are still covering their living expense.

There is nothing saying your daughter can’t be a waitress at a local restaurant and live at home too.

Colleges estimate cost of books as if you have to buy every book for every class brand new, (some base on the cost of the mandatory books for each class*the cost of the book at the campus book store) That’s not the case, however, some professors/classes do demand brand new text books (for one reason or another) which can cost in the realm of $60-$300 each. Some classes require multiple textbooks. Some degrees have a higher rate of needing brand new text books (such as degrees that require certain program codes that are included in the text book).

You can likely get away for most classes (Atleast undergrad) with used books/PDF versions that are much cheaper.

Campus Fees could be multiple different things, not sure what’s included at UC. I’ve seen other colleges (might be the case here as well) include the cost of Parking passes, campus services (such as a psychologist health clinic) mandatory funds for your campus identification card to be spent on campus. The list could go on and on.

Thanks! Still insane to me. Of course all my professors promoted their books as well, but I rarely bought them. The newest edition was almost always available at the library.

I got 2 university degrees and my total debt was $10k

You mean Go Dukes.

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It's a good thing I got rejected by every college I applied to

If the federal government's loan system allows it, then why not!

The library also doesn’t have enough copies for everyone in the classes. I met for classes every day and you had 24 hours to do homework. If you went to the library to use one of the maybe 5 copies of the book, chances are that they’d be in-use and you’d have to wait in a long queue. God save you if you were part of a lecture hall or if there were multiple sessions of the same class.

As an engineering student, I had a number of classes which required a unique code to access the online content and homework. The codes were often over $150 and only gave access for the duration of the course.

There is also an alarming number of professors who write their own books and FORCE you to buy them for their class.

Tuition is the same across degrees at the same college. Ex. Getting a 4 year engineering degree at XYZ university is the same cost as a 4 year business degree from XYZ university.

I have no idea what's happening here, as it seems like sloppy data at first glance, but Title IV implies to me that it's just... all colleges basically? Which means states like Illinois skew far far higher because of the high number of higher cost private schools?

It makes no sense we don’t have college without paying 200K.

This doesn’t include room board and books which are 15K or more a year added on

Is that new? When I attended college in the 90s, engineering school tuition was more expensive than the college of arts and sciences.

Surprised by Tennessee. I thought they had 2 year free community college that would bring their average down.

There are very few smart Americans. And we know why. It is only rich white entitled kids who become senators to enable a few true white old oligarchs (billionaires in the USA) to control quite a bit of all our lives. Welcome to the occupation of a nation by capitalist oligarchs and military-industrial worship. Sounds like the definition of a fascist state to me. And it really is to live in the USA: you cannot question authority or you will be silenced. That is all that brown men do in the USA and the "authorities" gun them down. When you run away from a cop, that is dissent...in the USA - you will be dead 100% of the time (especially if your skin is not white).

The problem with using green and red though is that it’s the most common color blindness. I’d be lost if this was green and red.

Maybe at huge schools (20k+ students) with multiple sub-colleges?

My undergrad was 6000 students, and all undergraduate departments/degree programs adhered to the same tuition/price per credit set by the bursar.

To throw another wrench into the mix, WV also has a ridiculously good scholarship for any decently smart, in state student. Any high school senior with a 3.0 GPA and a score 21 on the ACT can get the WV Promise scholarship. Those requirements really aren’t that high and it damn-near pays your entire 4-yr tuition. I went to engineering school at WVU and I think I ended up paying like 6-10k TOTAL for all 4 years (2011-2015). May have changed by now, though…

Just about everything you typed is wrong.

For what it is worth, this data is almost useless. I wouldn't come to any conclusions based on it.

That’s fair actually it’s something’s we often struggle with even in web design

I unfortunately have no ideas

hmmm so full time mcjob in california at min wage gets you about 30k a year…

So.. if your lucky to not have bills…. and can put all your money to school.. and handle a fews years of a shit job, its possible rofl 😂

4 years college maybe 5 * 40 a year. Plus room and board plus books per year.

Math seems fine to me.

Just about everything you typed is wrong.

That's crazy. Why should a literature degree cost as much as a chemistry degree when the logistics aren't the same? There aren't any labs to maintain or chemicals to stock up in order to teach literature.

The university president and the other higher-ups needs to make their $1M salaries somehow. The money certainly isn’t going to the professors, to restock labs and fix equipment, or even general upkeep of the campus.

Read! The notes off the Southeastern coast state the costs that are included.

In state tuition is ~ 9k a year in my state and that is pretty normal. On the graphic itself it says it does include room and board, food, transportation etc - all of which is needed regardless of attending a university or not. Most people graduate in 4 years. Tell me how you get 200k from that? ~ 36K for 4 years tuition. Where does 200k come from?

You were wrong about the 200k, and you were wrong about board and room and books not being included in the number proved by the graphic.

California was suppose to be one of those light colors, that was the entire purpose of our state system. Seeing what it’s like today makes me so sad.

The whole class of 25 to 1000 students for a given class and multiple sections can’t use one or two library books! Most college engineering textbooks in the 1980s were $50 to $100 apiece. Probably a lot more today in this year’s dollars, but thankfully many of the texts are online now.

Some might have lab fees or the like, that could be the difference

Generally universities charge a flat tuition fee for a full load, anything over 12 semester hours (typically each LAS class meets 3 hours a week for 3 sem hours, 4 or 5 for engineering in my experience). But some, like my alma mater the University of Illinois, now charge a surcharge for popular or expensive majors like engineering.

Junior/community colleges generally charge a rate per semester hour.

Not always. Some now charge more for engineering and computer science because the demand is so great.

Because they are better schools and states. There really is a correlation between intelligence and progressiveness.

No. It’s not. As a parent or student you care about all costs the same. The dollars you pay to the school for tuition and fees are the same as the dollars you pay for the dorm, apartment, grocery store, restaurant and everything else.

No! You could stay at home. No rent and the food is only a marginal difference. Costs are costs!

It is surprising. The proper response is not to call it crap, but to do your own research and present better data if you find it.

There are fees to cover administrative costs, gyms, student activities, campus medical service, busses, things like that.

Lucky you!

Sorry to see so many turds in here dumping on you. Good work! But a lot of the critical questions are valid. Namely private vs public and do you average by number of students at each school? Also, these numbers look like yearly numbers to me, not per semester.

Each year

What’s a rack?

University of Florida is currently a Top 5 public university.

For a teacher who does an average of one hour of work each day after they get home it’s about $31/hour. Just saying. And $45k is the low end of what teachers get paid in my area.

I am a teacher. Not criticizing, just saying that $45k isn’t terrible in all cases.

Hi everyone, thank you to everyone who left constructive feedback! As I mentioned I’m always working on improving and take these comments into consideration. It’s clear this map has ruffled feathers and I wanted it to be known that I see the points people are making. I hope people can continue to be kind to one another in the comments because that’s how healthy discussion happens. Thanks again everyone!

It comes from taxes paid by people in the state

I’m always working on my skills and will continue to make maps for as long as I find joy in making them. I hope you stick around to see what I make next :) But thank you for concern!

You can’t just look at hourly rate. You need to include all cost of employment. I’d take a job paying $31/hr that has great health care and a pension over a job paying $38/hr with terrible healthcare and no pension.

Cheer up, this is more likely the average full sticker price tuition/room/board for all colleges in state, and not the ave price people in Cali actually pay.

Well, yeah. My example job usually has great benefits, including a pension, and 12 weeks off every year. And if you’re good at it it’s a lot of fun.

On top of that private schools rarely ever cost what the stated tuition is.

Yeah it’s just a garbage map. My small state has very high in-state tuition for its state schools, but has very few schools overall and one of them is Ivy League. I’d love to know the average tuition actually paid at an Ivy. We also have a nationally known online school. With many thousands of students. How does that effect this?

Wow! Lol! I'm not sure you realize the full gravity of what you just said.

It’s the truth. Even W admitted “the truth has a liberal bias”.

Well shit that makes sense. Good call, I didn’t even think of that.

It’s common knowledge that out of state tuition is $20k more than in state

https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/trends-college-pricing-student-aid-2021.pdf

Unless you love your job, I guess. I’d prefer to like my job AND be well compensated though.

Actually I think they made it up to #3 or #2 public university. Which is weird, because when I went there it was #1 on the list of playboy party schools. It certainly wasn't great regards education.

A Grand/Thousand/K

Cost of Attendance includes room and board, as well as transportation, books & supplies, and other fees. So it is Cost of Attendance; it is not just tuition.

College towns are often expensive to live in. Many colleges require students to live in dorms with a food plan for one or two years. The dorm plus food plan is generally much more than a budget conscious person would otherwise spend on housing and food.

My oldest is currently living at home and attending community college with the hope of transferring to the local university after 2 years. We will pay nothing more for his housing and food than we did when he was in high school. His brother hopes to go straight to a 4 year college anywhere but near home. We will save nothing on housing with him gone, have modest food savings of roughly $2000/year and shell out probably $10k-20k per year for food and housing depending where he goes and whether he stays in dorms or rents a room off campus.

The text says it is only 4-year degree granting institutions, and it is average by institution, not by student.

(Part of the reason Iowa is so high is there are only 3 public 4-year schools in the whole state and over 30 private 4-year schools.)

Iowa is so high because there are only 3 public 4-year schools in the state and over 30 private 4-year schools. When you take the average by school instead of by student, that means that the more expensive private schools are going to drive the average.

This is also why the in-state and out-of-state are so close as most of the private schools probably do not have an in-state discount.

(Oregon has 7 public schools to 21 private. Vermont has 5 public schools to 11 private, but 4 of the public are considered a single system and so it might only be a 2 public schools for the purpose of this data source, even though all 4 have separate Title IV listings.)

Pretty sure it is straight up average by school.

So if school A has 100,000 students and a total cost of $30k, school B has 500 students and a total cost of $50k, and school C has 20 students and a total cost of $100k, the average comes out at $60k despite only 20 students actually paying more than that.

Is that tuition only, or with room and board? (US costs, at least for Title IV purposes, include room, board, transportation, etc)

> potentially forcing them to close in the near future.

If people are starting to realize a BA in sociology or history is guaranteed to leave them with tens of thousands in student loan debt, but unlikely to lead to higher income to help pay those debts, there are a lot of departments at least that might dwindle.

Just a few years ago people on the internet were still shouting "I went to university for an education not a job. If I wanted a job I'd go to f*cking trade school!" I'm sure some still do, but I see that argument less often.

(also slightly offensive to people studying computer science, engineering, accounting, etc. - that's not "trade school")

Yes, read the text in the bottom right of the image.

North Dakota, yes we are that cheap and currently it’s -40 windchill so pick your poison.

I did my first two years and it was something like $40 a unit, so super cheap. The most expensive parts were usually the books.

At the end of the day, when an employer asks for the degree, they don’t care what you did freshman and sophomore years

States in the Gulf of Mexico? And off the Atlantic coast? Odd...