SteadyTumbling

Another one from NPR’s @PlanetMoney: The Price Of College Tuition, In 1 Graphic:

Here’s the average sticker price and average net price for tuition and fees at public and private colleges in the U.S. over the past 15 years

(where

1. Sticker price is the full price colleges list in their brochures and on their websites. 2. Net price is the price students actually pay. Net price accounts for the fact that many students receive grants or scholarships. So it can be considerably lower than sticker price.

)

Planet Money’s takeaway:

The sticker price has gone way up (no surprise). But, because the value of grants and scholarships has also grown, average net price has grown much more slowly. In fact, in the past five years, average net price at private colleges has actually fallen.

(That’s shown by the darker internal circles in the bottom row. Personally I might have chosen to use some sort of double bar chart rather than these concentric circles.)

H/t to @trunchfiddle for pointing out this link:

Maybe it wont be as bad as it seems @steadyblogging via @planetmoney: The Price Of College Tuition, In 1 Graphic n.pr/JEAsmg

— Sean Mahoney (@trunchfiddle) June 14, 2012