Found this in a box of things from my college days. Note the student service fee of $30 got you in to all athletic events, Town Halls, and a bunch more stuff. Now my granddaughter pays $15,000+ to attend A&M.

1981 I paid ~$325 for a 15 hour semester. Included all season sports pass and a bus pass since I lived off campus.

Nice find.

So for fall of 68 and spring of 69 would cost a little over $1,000 and of the other expenses they show, around $1,300. Median income then was between $8,000 and $9,000 a year. Not so sure things back then were less expensive as a percentage of income than today.

College costs though are insane. Was talking to one of my nieces and she told me what they are paying for their oldest child and it was crazy. Of course, it is a liberal school with such rock solid majors as Africana Studies, Hispanic Studies, Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, and Japanese studies!! What a crock.

I was a '73 Day Duck living in the top of the line married student apartments for a whopping $115/month, all included. Tuition was $5/hour. GI Bill paid me $205/month, ROTC paid $110/month.

one safe place said:

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Nice find.

So for fall of 68 and spring of 69 would cost a little over $1,000 and of the other expenses they show, around $1,300. Median income then was between $8,000 and $9,000 a year. Not so sure things back then were less expensive as a percentage of income than today.

College costs though are insane. Was talking to one of my nieces and she told me what they are paying for their oldest child and it was crazy. Of course, it is a liberal school with such rock solid majors as Africana Studies, Hispanic Studies, Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, and Japanese studies!! What a crock.

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It's definitely gone up as a percentage of median income, but that's largely due to guaranteed student loans.

$1,300 in 1968 is the same as $12,100 in 2026 (9.3x), so the $15,000 isn't that far off.

Median income then was $8,630 in 1968. In 2025 it was $85,157 (9.87x).

So median income is outpacing inflation, but a year of college at A&M in 1968 was 15% of the median and now it's 17.6%.

I'm too lazy to do the math on the breakdown of that $15k in tuition increases vs. general cost of living increases, but people truly don't understand compounding impact over time. I'm sure parents in 1968 were saying the same thing to their kids.

The real bloat is in the private colleges. Some of those numbers are staggering.

Buck Compton said:

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The real bloat is in the private colleges. Some of those numbers are staggering.

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Have a sister in law who told us one of her grandchildren was going to some university and it was $79.000 a year

I suppose living in a non-A/C dorm did save a lot on rent.

When I was a student, there was only one left (Hart Hall), and it got A/C in 2002.

BonfireNerd04 said:

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I suppose living in a non-A/C dorm did save a lot on rent.

When I was a student, there was only one left (Hart Hall), and it got A/C in 2002.

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My dorm lottery pick number in the Fall of 1984 was "6". I was glad to get such a low number to assure I would get my choice pick of dorms. I picked Hart Hall and didn't realize until decades later that it was one of the last to get picked by most because it had no AC. But I needed to save money. Brother dropped me off, so I didn't have to pay the fee for parking and car. 5 day meal ticket was my biggest expense. Ate top romen from Skaggs and Cowpie and fries for $1.25 on weekends. Dorm was $276 for the entire Fall semester. Another few hundred for Tuition and fees (no sports pass, too expensive). All in with the meal ticket i believe my total cost for the semester was less than $1,600. Living poor, learning much, getting out on my own, and it was the most memorable part of my life. Good times.

Buck Compton said:

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one safe place said:

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Nice find.

So for fall of 68 and spring of 69 would cost a little over $1,000 and of the other expenses they show, around $1,300. Median income then was between $8,000 and $9,000 a year. Not so sure things back then were less expensive as a percentage of income than today.

College costs though are insane. Was talking to one of my nieces and she told me what they are paying for their oldest child and it was crazy. Of course, it is a liberal school with such rock solid majors as Africana Studies, Hispanic Studies, Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, and Japanese studies!! What a crock.

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It's definitely gone up as a percentage of median income, but that's largely due to guaranteed student loans.

$1,300 in 1968 is the same as $12,100 in 2026 (9.3x), so the $15,000 isn't that far off.

Median income then was $8,630 in 1968. In 2025 it was $85,157 (9.87x).

So median income is outpacing inflation, but a year of college at A&M in 1968 was 15% of the median and now it's 17.6%.

I'm too lazy to do the math on the breakdown of that $15k in tuition increases vs. general cost of living increases, but people truly don't understand compounding impact over time. I'm sure parents in 1968 were saying the same thing to their kids.

The real bloat is in the private colleges. Some of those numbers are staggering.

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Yep. I distinctly recall uncomfortably standing by while my father painfully wrote a check for ~$1,500 in summer of 1973 to cover my final two semesters. Included tuition, Corps dorm, full meal plan, laundry, fees.

That check is worth ~$11,000 today. I almost had to pry it out of his hand. As the first of five kids headed to college, with multi-kid overlap to finance for roughly a decade, A&M was a major investment by my parents even way back then.

Fall of '79 I paid just under $1300 Corps Dorm, 7 day meal plan, and tuition and fees for 15 hours.