The Cost of an Education

It's August now and that means we all go back to school soon. This year I am not only going to have anxiety over being the teacher, but I am also having a little anxiety over being a student again. I am starting an MEd program through Utah State University. It seemed like the right thing to do last spring when I applied, but now I'm a little nervous. Will I be a good online student? Is the program really what I want to do? Is it going to be too overwhelming to manage taking two classes a semester while piling on more at school by teaching on my prep as well as doing music lessons two nights a week? Can I really handle being an Aggie? Ugh. I go to an orientation in Logan this week. Hopefully my mind will be set at ease, at least academically, and I'll know a little bit more about what I'm getting into.

James and I are very blessed and we'll be able to both be in school at the same time with very little financial stress. Because of James' military service, his tuition is paid for! (Although he had a scare this year with some scholarship cuts. His 3.8 GPA wasn't quite good enough for the limited number of scholarships that are offered through the Guard. He was able to apply for a tuition waiver, though, and that was accepted. Thank goodness!) For me, teaching on my prep should bring in enough extra to cover my own tuition, as long as we stick to our current budget and spending habits.

Anyway, I've been thinking about tuition and the cost of an education. What James pays in tuition at the U is a lot more than what I paid 6 years ago (Gasp! I'm old!). In fact, what I paid then is about what it costs to go to SLCC now. I was curious and started looking at what other schools charge for tuition for 1 semester. Here is what I found (based on a full load of 15 credit hours, for residents):

Utah Schools (greatest to least) -
University of Utah ----- $2872
Utah State University ----- $2413
Brigham Poo University ----- $2145 (unless you're a non-member and then it jumps to $4290)
SLCC ----- $1395

Schools Outside of Utah (least to greatest) -
UCLA ----- $4500
Florida ----- $5300
Stanford ----- $6200
North Carolina ----- $2812 (unless you're a non-resident and then it jumps to $11,756)
Princeton ----- $17,000
Harvard ----- $26,000


Holy Cow! School is expensive.

For those of you within eyesight of this blog who have not yet started college . . .

START SAVING NOW!!!!!