This article originally appeared in the Sunday, Oct. 25, 2015 edition of the Star Tribune
An Oct. 18 article (“Private colleges try to soften $50-60K ‘sticker shock’ ”) reports that the most expensive college in the state now tops $60,000 per year and that four other private colleges are close behind.
Even if financial aid reduced the cost by 50 percent — as many private colleges say is possible — we’re still talking about an undergraduate degree that costs $100,000 or more.
What the article doesn’t mention is that there is a much more affordable way to get an exceptional education in just about any area of study — 555 different programs, to be exact — in a wide range of liberal arts and technical fields.
As its name implies, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities is a system of seven universities and 24 community and technical colleges throughout the state. The average cost of tuition is $5,399 per year at the colleges and $7,999 per year at the universities — and that is before financial aid is applied. Students who come from families with less than $20,000 in annual income pay only $525 in tuition per year at our colleges and $841 per year at our universities, while families with annual income of less than $40,000 pay $1,097 per year at our colleges and $1,409 at our universities. At these rates, a quality education is accessible to anyone who has a dream of a better future.
Outstanding higher education doesn’t have to cost $60,000 a year. We encourage students and their families to explore all their higher-education options, including the high-quality, more-affordable options available on the campuses of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.
Devinder Malhotra, president of Metropolitan State University and Avelino Mill-Novoa, president of Minneapolis Community and Technical College