Higher Education at $tate University

A lot of state-funded universities were originally created with the idea of offering close by, quality higher education to folks whose families couldn't afford the tuition at elite, far-off private schools. These schools would charge students from the state a more affordable fee, partly to offer them that opportunity, partly to keep collegiate-minded people in the state instead of losing them to other states and partly because the schools received state funds.

Although the in-state, out-of-state divide remains, the University of California at Berkeley has apparently decided to junk the whole "affordable" part. Non-Californian undergraduates who enroll in the fall of 2011 can expect to pay  $50,649 a year for their Berkeley education as it becomes the first public institution in the U.S. to break the $50,000 barrier. Californians will only have to pay $27,770. A hundred colleges across the country, including my alma mater, will ask for more than $200,000 for four years of their company. You can make your check out to Sarah Lawrence College for $57,384 if you want the absolute Rolls-Royce of educations, or for fifty large even for the mere Lexus model at Loyola University of Maryland. Berekley is 83rd on the list (maybe a Lexus with...I dunno, automatic cup holders). My former academic environs sit at 37th, which I think may make them a Rolls that's carrying a few miles on it.

One of colleges' longest-running jokes amongst their students went like this when I was enrolled: "$40,000 cover charge and all the beer you can drink." That referred to our tuition and fees for the full four years we were there -- which now would get me to spring quarter midterms and then run out.

The article from The Chronicle of Higher Education notes that Berkeley is kind of extreme (insert your own joke about wacky Californians and Berkeley weirdos here. I already made one this week) in its pricing, as the median for out-of-state students at public schools was $23,526, and only 14 public universities charged more than $40,000. Of course, eight of those are other schools in the University of California system.

They don't call it the Golden State for nothing, y'know.

(H/T to Erin O'Connor at Critical Mass)