Pre-Calculus
the price of college
What does college really cost? Aside from the tuition & fees, what other things contribute to the amount of money that is needed to pay for higher education? Is it really worth it? The purpose of this project was to examine the true cost of pursuing an education beyond high school. We chose two colleges and gathered the data of their tuition and fees for the last 10 years. Excel was used to roughly estimate the tuition costs for the years of our college enrollment as well. We found the percent increase in tuition from year to year, and used data points to determine the equation of the line to better predict the cost of tuition in the next five years. We then examined several different types of student loan repayment plans to find the plan that would best suit our needs and would be least expensive in the long run. The final part of the project was completing a cost-benefit analysis to look specifically at the pros and cons of college, and reflect on whether continuing our education is worth it.