The spending of college tuition is something that can be very difficult to assess accurately. When you pay your college tuition, where does it go? Students don’t exactly get an itemized receipt at the end of the year, which is why this can be a tough question to answer. If you’re looking for a clearer answer to the question of what your college tuition actually pays for, look no further — here’s the answer.
Breaking Down $100 of Tuition
Sure, you can look at an average budget for colleges through the United States Department of Education, but this is typically an overarching budget. With numbers that may go into the millions, it’s tough to wrap your head around these budgets.
Instead, consider how a college might spend $100. If you gave the college $100, how would they spend it? On average, a college would spend that $100 approximately like this:
- $15.81 – Salaries
- $15.58 – Hospitals and Healthcare
- $11.66 – Research
- $11.47 – General Instruction Expenses
- $9.61 – Auxiliary Student Enterprises
- $8.26 – Academic Support
- $8.15 – Institutional Support
- $6.25 – Other, Including Taxes and Liabilities
- $4.75 – Student Services
- $4.52 – Public Services
- $3.41 – Grants and Financial Aid
- $0.53 – Independent Operations
This includes $61.46 that goes to academically necessary things, including salaries and instruction expenses, and $38.54 that goes to things that might not be as necessary, including hospitals and research.
The Higher Cost of Private College
If you were to ask a few people the difference between public and private college, you’ll certainly get a number of different responses. However, one common thread between these responses will likely be the fact that private college is much more expensive than public college.
This is certainly true. In the 2019/2020 academic year, the College Board found that a student attending an in-state public school paid $21,950 yearly for tuition, fees, room, and board. On the other hand, a student attending a private school was likely to pay $49,870 yearly for the same thing, which is more than double the public college cost.
Tuition as a Percentage of Public Higher Education Revenue
Tuition trends are one thing that you may want to consider if you really want to understand tuition. One prominent tuition trend to think about is tuition as a percentage of revenue. A public higher education center will often receive money from government grants and from individuals who believe in the organization’s endeavors. That’s why tuition doesn’t have to be a high percentage of their revenue.
However, over the past years, public higher education centers have started to rely more and more on tuition. Here’s how it’s changed since the year 2000:
- 2000 29.2%
- 2001 29.5%
- 2002 30.4%
- 2003 32.5%
- 2004 35.2%
- 2005 36.2%
- 2006 36.5%
- 2007 36.3%
- 2008 35.8%
- 2009 37.7%
- 2010 40.6%
- 2011 42.5%
- 2012 47.0%
- 2013 47.7%
- 2014 47.2%
- 2015 46.9%
- 2016 46.9%
- 2017 46.6%
- 2018 46.6%
It’s interesting to note that this actually peaked in 2013 at 47.7%; since then, it’s been very slowly but steadily moving down, at 46.6% in both 2017 and 2018. This could mean that it’s on a permanent decline.
Conclusion
College tuition is an extremely confusing and complicated topic, and it’s very important to know more about it before you talk about it. Both public and private higher education centers have increased tuition over the last decade. Remember, tuition is a complicated process, so if you have more information, it’ll always be better.
