As the importance of a college education continues to rise in the United States, so does the cost of obtaining one.
The College Board issued its annual report on the state of college pricing and financial aid on Tuesday, which found that tuition prices continued to climb over the last year. This increase is less than the previous year's, yet still makes current tuition prices very high as compared to historical patterns.
According to the report, tuition and fees for four-year private universities increased by 6 percent at a cost of $1,132. For students at two-year public institutions, prices were up $167 over last year for an increase of 8.7 percent. Four-year public institutions saw their tuitions increase at a rate of 10.5 percent, causing students to pay $487 more than they did last year.
While the prices of tuition for higher education increased, financial aid also improved over the past year to combat the ever-present problem of making higher education affordable. The College Board reports that financial aid, excluding private student loans, increased 9 percent from last year. Taking inflation into account, this resulted in $111 billion being put toward financial aid for the 2003-2004 school year.
The University recently launched "Access U.Va.," a program that strives to address some of these issues by meeting 100 percent of its students' demonstrated financial need.
"U.Va. is going to go a long way to broadening or widening the pool of students who apply to the University who might previously not have thought they could afford U.Va.," University spokesperson Carol Wood said.
The College Board report points out that one of the obstacles of financial aid is the frequent use of student loans, which allow students to pay their way through college yet result in a debt that can take years to pay off.
The University's program will combat this problem through a combination of loan-free aid for lower-income students and loan caps for middle-income students. As a result, students will have more options and less debt upon graduating.
Experts have argued that the rising cost of tuition may cause many students to not even consider going to college as an option. "Access U.Va." aims to make attending the University feasible for all accepted students and to increase the economic diversity of the student body.
As the price of higher education continues to be an issue, the College Board is making efforts to help students gain access to the resources they need.
"Our mission is to connect students to college and opportunity and understanding tuition and financial aid and helping students to get that financial aid is part of that mission," College Board spokesperson Jennifer Topiel said.
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