degree

By Helen Wachtel 

Twenty years ago when my eldest daughter started college, the cost of tuition, fees and room and board at a non-profit private university was $31,590 per year, or $126,360 for four years. The cost of tuition and fees at a four-year public non-profit college was $5,020 per year or $20,080 if the student finished in four years. These sums seemed astronomical then, as they still do now. We worried about how we’d be able to afford this on our modest Vermont incomes since our youngest was to begin the following year as well. Both girls wanted to go to school in Boston and had been accepted to the colleges of their choice. This was a new experience for us, sending our children away to college.