[dominotw]

> Very-low cost higher education was a thing in mid-20th-century America--it was possible to attend your in-state university for a few thousand bucks in today's dollars.

I went to a state school in mid 2000's and paid around $1700/sem in-state tuition for full-time course load.

Is this still an option?

[wil421]

I also went to a 2 year school first and paid around the same.

When I transferred to a 4 year school the tuition doubled to a little over 3k. At the time I wasn't making anything waiting tables so I qualified for the Pell Grant. Graduated a few years older than usually graduates but with 0 student debt.

It's most definitely an option but most students are fine with Student debt. Many people I've met have student debt more than the first house I want to buy.

[quadrangle]

For most cases, no. Tuition rates have skyrocketed since only 10 years ago.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/10/23/charts-just-h...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-08-18/college-t...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/18/college-tuition-una...

Whether obscure deals or aid make things possible today, I don't know. Put simply: today's students are not looking at the same options as those just a few years ago.

[wil421]

I graduated 3 years ago and what the parent said is definitely still an option. Especially if you transfer in to a larger school after 2 years.

[quadrangle]

Thanks for the anecdotal data, glad to know there are still options. The overall stats in the chart may be skewed by the expensive institutions becoming that much more expensive, but still… my anecdote is that the regional state school I graduated from in 2004 (not a community college, but not a top-ranked place) is in the $5k-$6k range for 15-credit in-state semester today. And I checked that its below average for in-state tuition, all the state schools are in that range.

If your "transfer…" comment refers to community college, that's a smart financial decision but not exactly the topic of the post I was replying to.