[methehack]

I think in state tuition at a public university is often still a very good deal w/o nearly the debt profile.

[clairity]

in states with good public universities, the best value is 2 years at a good community college, then 2 years at the state school. even 2 years at a good state university is getting ridiculously expensive ($60K+).

[yardie]

From others experience it's 2 years at good community college and 2.5-3 years at the good state university. I've yet to see state college take all the credits from a transfer.

[clairity]

admittedly i don't have first-hand experience in this, but my understanding from friends & family here in CA is that limiting time at a state university to 2 years (and sometimes less) is entirely possible, with some planning.

the confounding factor for young adults, i suppose, is that it's hard to be certain enough about future interests amid all the possibilities not yet forgone to stay the course without (understandable) alteration (i changed course a few times in college myself).

[thelean12]

What state schools are $60k+ for 2 years for in-state residents?

Berkeley was my guess for an expensive in-state tuition rate and they're $38k for 2 years.

Unless you're including housing/food/etc.

[colinmhayes]

UIUC is 25k a year just tuition and fees. Expensive college town room & board plus opportunity cost of education instead of working easily gets you to 30k a year.

[areyousure]

https://admissions.illinois.edu/invest/tuition "Following are our estimated expenses for 2020-2021. Illinois Resident Tuition & Fees: $16,862-$21,956"

[colinmhayes]

Plus 3700 in fees

[areyousure]

My apologies for not quoting it originally, but it literally says "Tuition & Fees".

[mrlala]

Holy shit it's that expensive now?? Graduated from there about 15 years ago and it was maybe 8-10k a year..

[colinmhayes]

The state cut all funding under the last governor so they had some major issues.

[arkis22]

Be careful.

Rauner cut 400 million for education during a year he could make a budget with legislators.

Pat Quinn cut education spending by 340 million during a year when he got to write the budget himself because the legislature couldn't pass one.

[clairity]

yes, total cost, as that's the truer measure.

[thelean12]

Certainly not an option for everyone, but a ton of people in my state school class still lived at home. A good percentage could have lived at home but chose not to.

It's also hard for me to include housing because you'd need housing no matter what path in life you choose.

[clairity]

that's true, but that ignores opportunities/opportunity costs, which would cover housing/food in an alternate scenario.