"For some of them, paying the tuition is often cost-prohibitive.
Eighty percent of American college students attend public colleges and universities, and their relatively low tuition is often a prime attraction.
The rising cost of tuition is often how this crisis is defined, but when we listen carefully to the discourse, a different issue emerges: students, parents and employers are all expressing doubt about the value of an undergraduate degree.
And, if you are thinking of graduate school in your future, keep in mind that tuition is often more expensive without a real option of staying local.
In Tanzania, tuition is often covered by the government but students also had travel and accommodation costs for face to face meetings with instructors, costs to use internet cafes, and costs for printing and photocopying of modules and additional resource materials.
Tuition is often thousands of dollars per year.
At public colleges and universities where tuition prices are often capped and tied to their state appropriations, tuition is already subsidized by the state.
Sandy Baum, the senior policy analyst who wrote the report, "Trends in College Pricing 2009," said the findings were not as bad as they might have been, since in times of recession, tuition increases are often "really, really steep".
That's because tuition payments are often due upfront and it's more difficult than it should be for schools to keep track of payments.
But Cal State campuses, besides charging a lower tuition than UC, are often closer to home and more appealing to students who have family and work responsibilities and can't "uproot themselves to a different part of the state," she said.
