Editorial Columns

College Education a Better Deal Than Many Realize

Recently there has been a great deal of attention focused on college costs, particularly following the release of the report of the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education and continuing media attention to this issue.

Among its conclusions, the commission said that colleges and universities must redouble their efforts to cut costs and keep tuition affordable, and, at the same time, do a much better job of explaining what they are doing to control costs, what the actual costs of attendance are and how much student aid is available.

There are widespread misperceptions about college tuition. Most Americans believe tuition to be much higher than the actual figures -- about three times higher than actual costs for public universities.

This overestimation holds true for Pennsylvanians. In a study we conducted with the Gallup Organization, the majority of respondents cited Penn State's tuition as several thousand dollars a year higher than it actually is.

In reality, more than three fourths of the nation's undergraduates are enrolled in public colleges and universities, where the majority of students paid less than $3,200 for tuition and fees last year. Only about 2 percent of all American undergraduates pay $20,000 or more annually, and most of these students are from families with annual incomes of more than $80,000.

I thought it would be helpful to provide some background on the cost of a Penn State education. Although our tuition is one of the highest among public universities nationwide, Penn State is an exceptionally good deal for students.

For a typical Pennsylvania resident undergraduate student at University Park, the basic annual cost for tuition and fees is $5,832. Our instructional cost per student is just over $10,500. In addition to regular tuition, the instructional cost per student is supported by the state appropriation, additional tuition charges for out-of-state students, tuition differentials for various programs and a small amount of other income.

Yet we give our students what I consider to be a $20,000 education -- an education as good as one at a much higher priced institution. We are able to do this in part because we are the fourth most efficient university in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report.

When you add room and board at Penn State to tuition and fees, the total is a little over $10,000 a year. Based on a nine-month school year, that works out to about $38 a day.

Where else for $38 a day can you get:

• A double room with cable TV, phone, microwave and refrigerator;
• three meals a day (all you can eat);
• health care;
• recreational facilities;
• mental health services;
• advising;
• free daily newspapers;
• lectures and entertainment by internationally recognized figures;
• big-time sports, parties and free movies;
• free use of some of the most advanced computers available loaded with software;
• free e-mail and at the highest speeds possible;
• use of one of the largest libraries in the nation;
• free access to a wide variety of museums and virtually unlimited personal interaction with some of the most creative inventors and best minds, authors and thinkers alive today.

Not to mention that in the case of Penn State, our students also receive Creamery Ice Cream, views of Mt. Nittany and the chance to bump into Joe Paterno.

And, by the way, we toss in a first-class baccalaureate education that improves lifetime earnings over a high school diploma by about 50 percent.

And, if you can't afford the $38 a day, we'll make up the difference with scholarships, grants or loans.

Many people seem to have lost sight of the fact that most of higher education is a pretty good deal that would be difficult to duplicate at the same costs in any other segment of our society.