Xolotech: 10 Most Affordable Colleges

Friday, August 5, 2011

10 Most Affordable Colleges - CNNMoney

More Affordable College

10 most affordable colleges - Uncle Sam ranks college costs (1) - CNNMoney:

The tool, called the College Affordability and Transparency Center, was mandated by education reforms passed by Congress in 2008, and is meant to reveal the true costs of going to college. Each individual college self reports its data and has had several opportunities to revise their numbers if needed. Here are the 10 cheapest schools, ranked by net price for the 2008-2009 academic year -- the most recent data available. We included only colleges in the 50 U.S. states with undergraduate enrollments of 5,000 or more."

The Bad News

Cheap and small isn't the only thing to consider. Costs can be trimmed by attending a Community College, then transferring to a 4-year college. Check your options, then do the math. A quick table is posted below, and shows the cost to attend Austin Community College for 2 years, then transfer to 4-year.

Key idea: if you have to complete a foreign language requirement (4-8 units), why pay more than the ACC rate of $59/unit? Steven Kent of Daily Finance reinforces the concern that many 4-year college students fail to finish their degree track in his article: Four-Year Degree Still Lives -- in Virginia

On average, public and private schools are graduating just 37 percent of college students within four years, according to the most recent data from the American Enterprise Institute. What's more, the AEI also found that so-called "four-year" colleges graduated an average of only 53 percent of students (entering since 2001) within six years..."

TUITION LINKS*

*Table based on: Texas resident, undergraduate, 12 units per semester, misc fees and charges not included, subject to change, not adjusted for inflation or rate increases, for comparison purposes only... (I hate lawyers).

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