Tuition for college.

[Cat Grad]

http://www.50states.com/college/detail/mt/180461.htm

http://www.50states.com/college/detail/ga/139931.htm

http://www.50states.com/college/detail/ga/138983.htm

I surmise after reading rather quickly many of your posts the last few months the cost of college is not a real concern right now as it is for me (I've three children attending college at the present time). Our Governor, Brian, would like to do something similar to Georgia with their Hope Scholarship whereby a high school graduate with a 3.00 GPA in their core courses does not have to pay tuition or books in any of the 34 Georgia University System Institutions. However, why does it cost so much to attend one of our Montana University System schools while our pay scale for our professors is approximately half of Georgia's? Can anyone provide any factual insight?

[briannell]

that's why we're saving now! actually, for in state Montana isn't that high, I paid out of state all 4 years at MSU and still recieved a great education at a fraction of what I would have paid to attend school in CA. I may not use what I learned at MSU for a paycheck, but I found the professors challenging. Even though I attended college prep HS (not public) I found I was less prepared for college than the Montana HS students coming into MSU. Montana has great education - yes they need to pay professionals in MT more, but I'd still love our kids to have the academics that MT offers.

[bozbobcat]

Those prices are disturbing, especially to a college student like myself. I'll give you some updates for in-state tuition payment. I calculated these from what I paid for the last two years. I added in $1000 in a scholarship that I received for the year from MSU, so these are the updated amounts for in-state students.

2004-2005 $4,517
2005-2006 $5,221

For out-of-state students, I'd speculate to these amounts. I got this by finding the percentage difference between 02-03 and 03-04, which was about 9.9%.
2004-2005 $13,965
2005-2006 $15,348

I will agree with Rebecca that Montana schools are very good. I felt extremely well prepared for college when I got to campus in the fall of 2003. I think one of the major reasons why Georgia is so much cheaper than Montana is the levels of support given from the state government. This number keeps going down in Montana, or doesn't increase at all, leaving the students to shoulder the bill. But in this case, the Georgia tax base should be accounted for in comparison to the Montana tax base. I hope the legislature steps up in 2007 and finds some badly needed money for education in this state, for both higher ed and K-12. I guess you can see with these amounts that we have to pay, why I would get mad about an academically underachieving student-athlete who has their entire education paid for and subsidized by the rest of us.

[SonomaCat]

For another point of comparison, it looks like the California schools shake out like this:

CU system (Berkeley, UCLA, Davis, etc.)

Instate - $7,000
Out of state - $ 25,000

CSU system (Fresno, San Jose, Sacramento, Cal Poly, etc.)

Instate - $3,000 to 4,500
Out of state - $11,500 to $13,000

So it looks like the CA schools are right in the same range as MSU in terms of tuition costs.

[briannell]

Brad now factor in cost of living for CA schools, as many students move out of dorms, if they can even get one after the first year, and you'll see for me why Bozeman was much better than Saint Mary's or UOP. I hated Cal, barely could stand my first year there. MSU is far superior in that professors at MSU give a damn if you pass the class. Cal could care less so much over crowding that profs don't recognize names or faces. MSU staff are in most part wonderfully educated themselves and love to teach their students. i loved MSU, especially fun classes like Dr. Don. Sorry, but Montana has it all over CA. I know you have converted to my Bay Area way of life, but i'll still take Montana.

By the way, from 95-97 we rented a home on N 16th with 5 bedroom, 3 baths for 750/mth, and we had pets. NO WAY would you see that in CA. doubt you'd find that in Bozo now either.

[SonomaCat]

Well, St. Mary's and UOP are both private and cost about $25K per year in tuition alone as well. So yeah, MSU would definitely be a cheaper option than those two.

I'm not making an argument for CA schools ... my kids will be encouraged to go to MSU ... but I was just adding the CA state school tuition figures as a comparison to MSU's tuition.

You could probably get pretty cheap rent in Fresno or even Sacramento ... but you'd definitely pay more than rent in Bozeman to live in the Bay Area or many other parts of CA.