College Costs - Public vs Private

Thank you to all of the students (and parents) who attended tonight’s Senior student and parent college night. I enjoyed talking to you and hopefully some (or all) of the information was helpful to you.

One of the topics that came up during tonight’s meeting was affordability of colleges.

Lots of students are scared away by the costs of private schools and do not even consider them as reasonable alternatives – even if the college has all of the features that they are looking for in a school. Please don’t do this… Look for the right school first and then worry about the costs and determining if it is going to be a viable option later. The reason I say that is that the data shows that the total difference in college debt between a public and private Ohio college over a 4 year time period only end up being about $1,000. Yes, I know, a thousand dollars is still a lot of money, but in the whole scheme of things it really isn’t and so it isn’t worth eliminating a school that you might really like because the initial cost seems too high.

And in case you were curious… here’s the specific data and the source: According to The Project on Student Debt, 2006 – The average student loan debt for seniors graduating from Ohio colleges and universities in 2005 was $18,854 for Ohio public universities – which ranks 10th among the states. And for Ohio private colleges the average debt was $19,938 – ranking 29th among the states.

In Ohio, private schools have a wide range for tuition and fees – This year the lowest costs $7,980 and the highest comes in at $38,140. The average tuition rate is $21,284. 26 schools come in below the average tuition amount – 4 of those being below $10,000 in tuition and fees.


Don’t forget tomorrow night is the Homecoming Bonfire.