Last year, UC regents voted to raise annual fees by 32 percent to $10,302. Earlier, their CSU counterparts raised fees to $4,026. The increases are just the latest in a series of fee hikes during the last decade -- more are proposed this year. This calculator applies average fee increases from the past to predict what the CSU and UC systems will charge in the future. For instance, a kid born today would eventually pay more than $40,000 annually in UC fees, assuming the last decade of increases becomes the norm. All increases and figures shown are in 2008 dollars.
Click here to load this Caspio Bridge DataPage.
After getting results click here to perform a new calculation.And here's the table this calculator is based upon.
University of California fees at the beginning of this academic year (2009-2010): $7,788
California State University fees at the beginning of this academic year (2009-2010): $3,354
Notes/Assumptions: Figures shown represent in-state, systemwide fees; campus-specific fees are excluded. This calculator uses the past to try and predict the future. Its calculus is simple: circumstances and decisions in the past will remain consistent with circumstances and decisions in the future. That said, all sorts of things could happen that would render these predictions moot. The Bee used data from the California Postsecondary Education Commission that showed UC and CSU fees throughout history in current dollars. As such, all the predictions are adjusted for inflation, assuming future inflation is consistent with the past 20 years. During the past 18 years, UC and CSU fees rose, on average, about 4.2 percent each year, after inflation. During the past 10 years, UC and CSU fees rose, on average, about 9 percent. Finally, this calculator assumes that a 17-year-old future freshman will start school during the 2011-2012 school year, that a 16-year-old will start during 2012-2013, and so on.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
• Read more articles by Phillip Reese
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.