Cost of a Western Pa. college has increased 35% over the past decade

Career and guidance counselors have shifted the way they prepare students for college as the cost of attending area colleges and universities continues to climb.

Instead of encouraging students to choose a school and field of study where they could explore and find themselves, the focus is now on earning a practical degree — one that would justify the debilitating price tag.

The cost of education at 24 institutions in the region — public and private — has increased by an average of 35% in the past 10 years, according to data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), a survey repository within the U.S. Department of Education.

Nationally, costs have risen about 25% at private colleges and 30% at public colleges, according to data from the College Board.

The data combines tuition, room and board, books and fees.

Over the years, Karen Litzinger, a career counselor in Pittsburgh, has grown used to advising prospective college students to consider their potential debt and return on investment for their field of study.

“These people are so young. They’re not necessarily thinking and running the numbers to do basically a cost-benefit analysis,” Litzinger said.

But such calculations have to be commonplace today. Litzinger said there has been a “societal shift.” People used to go to college to explore and get to know themselves. Now, she said, the “college experience” is hardly a factor, and that frustrates her.

“It would be sad to not have the college experience be more than simply getting your degree to get a good job with good pay,” Litzinger said. “To function as a society, we need to be our best selves, and that requires learning about ourselves and teamwork and a little something more than your actual discipline.”

Natalie Momplaisir, director of the local counseling organization College Grad Career Counseling, agreed that education is viewed differently now that the country is saddled with trillions of dollars in student debt — more than $68 billion in Pennsylvania alone.

“People are just going in, getting their degree and getting out so they can get a job,” Momplaisir said. “And there’s so much confusion for students, too, about if college is even worth it.”

Momplaisir said that while she and other counselors used to encourage students to take advantage of financial aid wherever they could, they’re now suggesting students find more grant funding, dip into their savings more and compromise with less-expensive state schools.

“You might have a degree from an awesome school, but you are buried in debt and only making $30,000,” she said.

Every school in Western Pennsylvania has experienced increased costs in recent years — most by around 30%. The University of Pittsburgh campuses increased the least with costs rising only 24% from 2009-19.

The institution that saw the greatest cost jump in the past decade was Clarion University of Pennsylvania, which climbed from $18,210 for in-state students in 2009 to $27,975 in 2019 — an increase of 54%.

Pam Gent, Clarion’s provost, said the increase is due to renovations in the university’s lowest-priced residence halls. But Clarion, like other schools in the state system, also is struggling with dwindling state funds, she said. Gent said that in the 1990s, the state supplemented about 55% of Clarion’s tuition cost. Now, it covers about 27%.

“The biggest change in cost for us is the fact that the state has not made the appropriations that they used to,” Gent said.

In an attempt to ease students’ financial burden, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education implemented a tuition freeze last year, and Clarion also implemented a freeze to housing costs.

Carnegie Mellon University approved a 3.2% undergraduate tuition increase last month, further driving up the cost of one of the most expensive universities in the area and nation. Even without the increase, CMU was the fifth most expensive institution in Pennsylvania and within the top 50 in the U.S., according to U.S. Department of Education data.

In the past 10 years, CMU’s cost of attendance has increased from $54,160 in 2009 to $72,283 in 2018. According to a message to students from Provost James Garrett Jr., tuition will be $57,560 with another $9,210 for room and board and $6,340 for a traditional first-year meal plan. In total, the cost of attending CMU will soon be more than $73,000.

Garrett told CMU’s student newspaper, The Tartan, that the latest increase is due to instructional costs, and that the university must invest more in student experience, including new facilities and classroom renovations. In his message to students, Garrett also said the university plans to increase contributions to financial aid by 3.8%, “in relative proportion” to tuition.

“We recognize that any increase to our tuition and fees adds to the significant financial investment made by our students and their families,” Garrett wrote.

CMU has been identified in multiple reports for having a significant return on investment for students. Just a year after graduation, computer science students at CMU were earning a median salary of $138,900, much higher than other schools in the region.

Nationally, much of the increase in college costs is due to inflating operating costs for resources like salaries, utilities, supplies and materials, according to industry tools like the Commonfund Higher Education Price Index, which tracks cost drivers in higher education. Inflation for U.S. colleges and universities rose 2.5% in the 2019 fiscal year.

Litzinger said another possible reason for the increase is a shrinking population of college-going students. In the fall 2019 semester, overall college enrollment in the U.S. declined by more than 231,000 students from 2018, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Data Center.