Is College Actually Getting Cheaper?!

If you’ve looked at the price tag for college lately and felt your soul leave your body, you’re not alone. For years, the trend has been that college costs more than a small castle plus a dragon maintenance fee, but the data says college is actually getting cheaper! Before you start celebrating like your student loans were cancelled, hold on. College didn’t suddenly become cheap, just cheapER. Let's look at a recent study of 200 colleges that gives us the details!

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Here are Five Fast Facts on decreasing college costs:

1. 👀 Across The Board - The actual inflation-adjusted tuition cost has gone down for all types of colleges and all income levels. That means fewer students living in their parents’ basement forever! 🎉

2. 🌮 Clearance Sale - Overall, costs dropped between about 5%-28% over the last six years, depending on things like the wealth of the family and the size and endowment of the college. That's at least enough for a few Taco Tuesday nights on campus.

3. 😮‍💨 Less Is More - Families making around $45k have seen the biggest cost drops, and if you expand the comparison to a decade ago they're paying almost 35% less. Looking at those costs, you might just need to breathe into a paper bag rather than passing out completely.

4. 📖 Goodies For All - Families making about $140k are saving roughly $1,500 a year (4.6%) at public flagship colleges. It’s not life-changing money, but hey, that’s at least enough for textbooks! For one semester. Maybe.

5. 🏋️ Heavy Lifting - Colleges didn’t magically get cheaper, they just started handing out more grants and scholarships. Basically, the price is still nuts, but now it comes with a coupon. A very important, wallet-saving coupon.

🔥Bottom line: The only outlier in the study was the wealthiest families over the past decade - their costs went up by 8.5%. Still, it's good news for almost everyone!

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Keep in mind this is simply the numbers for tuition. This study doesn't include living expenses or other related things, which we all know have caused more pain than a 3-exam finals day. Thanks to more financial aid, most families are paying less than a few years ago…even if it doesn’t always feel that way.

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