College Used to Cost as Much as a Porsche—Now It’s More Than a Mortgage

Why tuition keeps rising, what’s changed since the ’80s, and how tech + scholarships can make college affordable again.

Sticker shock is real—here’s how to turn panic into a game plan.

If you’ve ever stared at a college’s price tag and felt your stomach drop—you’re not alone. Whether you’re scrolling through your dream school’s website or sitting at the kitchen table with your parents, one question keeps coming up:

“How are we supposed to pay for this?”

Let’s talk honestly about what’s really going on with the cost of college—and what you can do about it.

Flashback: When College = Porsche 944

When I started at Northwestern University in 1982, tuition was $10,000 a year. By the time I graduated, it had climbed to about $13,000. My classmates and I joked that four years of college cost about the same as a brand-new Porsche 944—and back then, that felt outrageous. Compared to today? It’s a bargain.

For some perspective, the average household income in the U.S. when I started college was just over $21,000. Most families lived on a single income, and fewer than half of married moms worked outside the home. We didn’t have the internet, FAFSA was a paper form you mailed in, and if your family couldn’t cover tuition, your options were limited: maybe a Pell Grant, a part-time job, or a loan.

Fast forward to today, and everything has changed. The average household income in 2024 is around $74,500, which sounds like a big jump…tuition alone can top $40,000 a year. Layer on housing, meals, and fees, and all-in costs often reach $70,000+—every single year. Income has roughly tripled since the ’80s, but college prices have risen six- to seven-fold, which is why so many families feel like they’re sprinting on a treadmill that keeps speeding up.

Why College Costs Exploded

There is no single simple reason, but here are a few things that are driving the numbers: 

More Staff, More Services – Colleges now offer mental health resources, career coaching, DEI offices, IT teams, and other student services. These are valuable—but they come at a cost.

Luxury Campus Living – Schools are investing in fancy dorm upgrades, state-of-the-art fitness centers and restaurant-quality dining halls. Once one college upgrades, others have to follow to compete for the same students.  It’s an amenities arms race.

Marketing Machines – Every glossy brochure you get in the mail requires designing, printing and postage, creating a huge new expense line in the university’s overall budget. 

Tax Funding Cuts – Public colleges used to get more government support. With less state and federal funding, more of the cost to students and families through their tuition bills.

Student Loans – The government and private lenders make it easy to borrow tens of thousands of dollars for education, and the colleges know it. Ironically, the more families can borrow, the more colleges feel justified charging. And whether or not you can repay that debt is unfortunately, not always their concern.

The Bill Starts Before You’re Accepted

Here’s the kicker—before you even get into college, you may have already spent a small fortune.

Every SAT or ACT test has a fee, and many students are taking these tests more than once. Want to send your scores to multiple colleges? That’s another charge – each and every time. If you’re in AP or IB classes, there are fees for those exams too. Then there are the actual application fees — usually $50 to $100 each. If your family visits campuses, which almost seems obligatory today, you will be paying for gas or airfare, hotels, meals, and time off work to help determine if the campus has the right “feel”.

It adds up fast. I've seen families spend $1,000–$2,000 just getting to the point of submitting applications, and they haven’t even gotten their financial aid package yet!

The Hidden Costs After You Enroll

Once you're in, tuition is just the beginning. 

Most colleges require freshmen to purchase a meal plan, even if it doesn’t fit their appetite or eating habits. Textbooks or e-codes for textbooks could cost $300 or more per class, and you might also have to pay course-specific fees for labs or tech platforms.

Most, if not all, schools require students to carry health insurance, and if you’re not on a qualifying family plan, you’re automatically enrolled in a campus policy which is an additional fee. Then there are the adulting extras: parking permits, laundry cards and dorm supplies. Transportation around campus and the surrounding area, not to mention the cost of coming home for holidays and school breaks all add up, as well as printing fees, proctoring fees and extra charges for graduation day ceremonies, transcripts and your diploma. These “hidden” costs can add thousands more to your annual expenses — even at a public college.

The Bright Side: Tech, Scholarships & Strategy

When I was applying to college, we didn’t “search for scholarships” because there was nowhere to search. The internet wasn’t a thing yet. If you didn’t get help from your guidance counselor or qualify for federal aid, your only option was to take out loans and hope for the best.

Today is a different world—thank goodness! Scholarships are everywhere: local businesses, nonprofits, religious groups, even Fortune 500 companies eager for a tax break and good PR.

There are more scholarships out there than ever before. Local businesses, religious groups, national nonprofits, big-name companies who fund scholarships as a way to support education while also getting a tax deduction. Fortunately, they are not all looking for 4.0 GPAs or student-athletes either! Many of them want real students with real stories – students who can show that they have the same values of their organizations and show promise to some day give back to the world in the same way that they are trying to do with funding these scholarships.

Thanks to today’s technology, it is also easier than ever to find and apply for these scholarships. Students can search online and apply to several scholarships in a single afternoon with the click of a button. 

You don’t need a full ride to make a big impact. Win five or ten smaller awards and you can chip away at thousands of dollars in tuition. I’ve worked with many students who covered almost their entire tuition this way. And a tip that many people overlook – scholarships aren’t just for high school seniors!  Keep applying for scholarships after you’ve started college!   Since most students don’t do this, the competition is much less, making the odds of winning that much greater!

Your First Steps

Start where you are, and decide that you are going to find a way to make it work.  College is expensive—more than it’s ever been. It can feel unfair, overwhelming, and even impossible at times but don’t let the sticker price shut the door on your dreams.

Today’s students have something my generation didn’t: ACCESS. Access to information, access to resources, access to opportunity. access to real support systems that can help you bridge the gap between what college costs today and what your family can afford.

You don’t have to take on debt by default. You don’t have to do this alone. You don’t even have to know exactly where you’re headed.

Just take the first step. One search, one application, one win at a time. Let’s work smarter, not harder together. Enter13 Scholarship Coaching is here to help you navigate the process—and help you get the funding you deserve.

With you ‘til the tassel turns,

Mama Parr

Have you felt the sticker shock too? Drop a comment below—I read every one.