College Costs and Prices

College Costs and Prices One thing that is stressed the most in today's society is a college education. Not only do parents want their children to have one, something that is even more stressed is the price we pay to obtain one. Something that needs to be understood is the difference between college costs and college prices. College costs refer to what the institutions spend on education and related services, while college prices are what the students and their families are charged for a higher education along with the money that actually comes from their pockets (Geller viii). Is what we receive from a college education worth what we pay for? Some say yes, and some say no. It really all comes down to how much one has to pay for schooling, how much they can afford to pay, how much one has to pay after they graduate, and how much they get paid. There are many ways to lower the price that is paid for college. One just has to know how to do it in advance and be fully prepared for the work that it requires. In the end, a college education will be worth it. According to Dr. Howard Rothmann Bowen, the costs of college tend to get higher as students climb up the academic ladder. The educational cost per student, therefore, tends to be greater in institutions with high proportions of advanced students than in institutions with high proportions of beginners. According to Bowen's book, The Costs of Higher Education, all the expenditures of higher education are paid out to staff as wages or salaries, to outside vendors for the purchase of goods and services, to students for financial aid, and to outside vendors for the purchase of goods and services, and to outside vendors and contractors for the purchase of capital goods such as buildings and equipment (8). Appendix A is a table from Bowen's book expressing different administrative divisions and what percent of expenditures they receive from America's colleges and universities in a single year. Referring to Appendix