College enrollment down nationwide due to high tuition costs; Nevada State Treasurer offers tips to save
Across the country, more and more young adults are choosing to forego college to join the workforce instead, due to high tuition costs and doubts as to whether their investment is worth it in today’s economy, according to NPR.
According to National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, spring enrollment across the country fell by more than 600,000 students, seven times worse than the decline only a year beforehand.
In spring of 2019, there was a staggering decline in enrollment at private, for-profit four-year institutions, declining by nearly 20 percent.
In 2015, there were over 18.5 million students enrolling in higher education in the Spring semester; in 2020, the number had fallen by over a million students with only 17.5 million adults choosing to enroll in college.
While Nevada has far lower costs per credit than our western neighbor, the Silver State is no stranger to increasing tuition costs above the rate of inflation.
According to Education Data, in-state students in California are paying $348 per credit hour at public 4-year institutions, while out-of-state students are paying a whopping $1,349.
Since 2001, there has been a 184 percent increase in tuition costs at the University of Nevada, from $79 per credit in 2001, to $224 in 2021, according to NSHE.
While this works out to an increase of approximately 9.2 percent each year, inflation has not kept pace, with only a slight increase of 2.16 percent each year.
What this means it that $1 in 2001 now has the purchasing power of about $1.53, an increase of only 53 cents over 20 years.
If tuition costs had kept rate with inflation, each credit would cost $121.20 today, far less than the $224 per credit we’re actually seeing at NSHE institutions.
With students having to choose between forgoing college altogether, or being saddled with huge student-loan debts, the Nevada Treasurer’s Office offers tips on how to help Nevadans plan for the rising cost of college.
One way is through the Nevada Prepaid Tuition Program, which allows parents to pay ahead for their child’s tuition using today’s tuition prices. Essentially, parents of children at the newborn age through 9th grade can choose to prepay for their children’s college tuition at today’s costs, with the assumption that college will continue to grow. It is one of 12 prepaid tuition programs in the country, according to the Treasurer’s office, and is a qualified 529 plan, which means that families can receive a tax advantage of a 529, and their child can graduate from college “relatively debt-free.”
Another resource for student loan borrowers is the Student Loan Ombudsman program, which was created by the State Treasurer’s Office as an educational resource relating to loan options, borrower’s rights, and the details of their student loans, all well before they sign on a dotted line, according to the Treasurer’s Office. The Ombudsman can help educate borrowers on the best ways they can pay for college, provide information about all student loan and financial aid options, and make sure they understand the details of their repayment.
Finally, the third resource the Treasurer’s Office suggests is taking advantage of the Governor Quinn Millennium Scholarship, which awards up to $10,000 in tuition to “the state’s brightest students” who decide to attend college in Nevada. The scholarship allows qualified students an opportunity to save money by simply going to school at an in-state college or university as opposed to seeking education outside of Nevada.
For more information on these resources and more, you can visit the Nevada State Treasurer website at https://www.nevadatreasurer.gov/