Source: The COTI uses the federal National Center
for Education Statistics estimate for total tuition, fees,
room, and board at a four-year public institution. 67
Rationale: Two children pursuing four-year degrees
would require a combined 16 semesters of college, so a
household preparing for those costs would need to save
roughly one semester’s worth of cost per year before the
children reached college age. (While the savings might
ideally earn a positive return in the interim, that return
would need to be quite strong just to keep pace with the
rate of increase in tuition over the same period.)
The one-semester estimate may overstate costs in some
respects—for instance, a family would likely have 20 or
more years between the birth of a first child and the
college graduation of a second. And in practice, many
children do not ultimately attend college (though a
small and, it seems likely in recent decades, declining
share has chosen from a young age not to consider that
path). But it also understates costs by considering only
public college costs; private college costs are more than
twice as high.68 Note also that the cost of public college
tuition already incorporates the substantial public
subsidy provided by the state government.
quoting from paper:
Basket Component: One Semester of Public College
Source: The COTI uses the federal National Center for Education Statistics estimate for total tuition, fees, room, and board at a four-year public institution. 67
Rationale: Two children pursuing four-year degrees would require a combined 16 semesters of college, so a household preparing for those costs would need to save roughly one semester’s worth of cost per year before the children reached college age. (While the savings might ideally earn a positive return in the interim, that return would need to be quite strong just to keep pace with the rate of increase in tuition over the same period.)
The one-semester estimate may overstate costs in some respects—for instance, a family would likely have 20 or more years between the birth of a first child and the college graduation of a second. And in practice, many children do not ultimately attend college (though a small and, it seems likely in recent decades, declining share has chosen from a young age not to consider that path). But it also understates costs by considering only public college costs; private college costs are more than twice as high.68 Note also that the cost of public college tuition already incorporates the substantial public subsidy provided by the state government.