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Survey: Coloradans worry about college costs – but are mistaken about the amount
June 6, 2024
AFFORDABILITY.
It is the top concern among people pondering college and its benefits – even above a school’s ability to prepare students for careers and life – according to a new survey conducted for the CSU System by Magellan Strategies of Broomfield, Colorado.
Yet, findings also revealed significant misconceptions about affordability: Most adults surveyed think the cost of tuition and fees for students attending CSU System universities is much higher than it is; likewise, respondents have mistaken impressions about student debt.
“People just don’t know. It’s not as expensive as you think,” said David Flaherty, chief executive officer of Magellan Strategies, which conducts opinion research for educational organizations and others. “The lack of awareness of the cost of a four-year degree for an in-state student is striking. There is a lot of misinformation out there.”
For instance, the survey asked, “What do you think the average annual cost of tuition and fees is for someone who lives in Colorado to attend the CSU Fort Collins campus?” As shown below, most respondents erroneously thought costs were steeper than they really are.
Assumptions about costs at CSU Fort Collins
Source: CSU System 2023 Image and Awareness Survey.
Just 27% of respondents were correct. The average total cost of tuition and fees for full-time students from Colorado was $12,896 during the 2023-2024 academic year, according to the CSU Office of Financial Aid. Survey responses revealed similar disconnects regarding the costs of tuition and fees at CSU Pueblo and CSU Global.
ATTRIBUTES
The CSU System 2023 Image and Awareness Survey gathered online interviews with more than 1,500 registered voters in Colorado from December 2023 through the first half of January this year. The survey, with a 95 percent confidence level, produced data representative of voter registration demographics in the state. That means many of the survey respondents were parents and grandparents of college-aged students – a group that strongly influences decisions about higher education.
The survey provides analysis of public perceptions about higher education – particularly views of CSU System campuses – for the System’s Board of Governors and leaders, which helps inform decision-making and communication strategies. The CSU System includes Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CSU Pueblo, and CSU Global.
Survey respondents ranked higher education attributes as follows:
IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTES OF A COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY
- Affordable tuition
- Producing graduates well prepared for the workforce
- Producing graduates well prepared for life
- Campus safety
- Opportunities for internships and hands-on experience
- In-person learning
- Academic quality
- Institutional scholarships and financial aid
- Up-to-date technology
- Friendly and supportive campus
COST SHARING
It’s not surprising that affordability topped the list, Flaherty said. The value and affordability of college degrees has been a topic of growing concern nationwide, a variety of surveys has revealed.
This concern has edged upward over time, coinciding with a nationwide trend in which states have generally invested less in public higher education. That means students and their families have gradually shouldered more responsibility for tuition.
Colorado is at the bottom of the heap: It ranked No. 45 in the nation based on public higher education appropriations per full-time equivalent student in 2022, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.
One survey question addressed this issue. It asked, “On average, for an in-state student, 65% of the total cost of a college degree is paid by the student, and 35% is paid by the state. Do you think this is reasonable or not?” Most respondents found that unreasonable. Many thought the state should pay at least half. Here is a breakdown of responses:
Opinions about state & student cost sharing
34% total reasonable / 59% total unreasonable
Source: CSU System 2023 Image and Awareness Survey.
FINANCIAL AID
Although many people are concerned about college affordability, the survey showed that respondents are not aware of the extent of financial aid available for students, Flaherty said. Data show that most students nationwide receive some type of financial support to attend college, whether federal, state, institutional, donor funded, or, very often, a mix. For this reason, posted college sticker prices are typically higher than the final amounts paid, said Sandy Baum, senior fellow at the Center on Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute.
At CSU, about 60% of undergraduate students receive some type of financial assistance to pay for college, records show. At CSU Pueblo, that number is more than 70%; at CSU Global, it is more than 30%.
Moreover, Colorado State University has a program called the CSU Tuition Assistance Grant that covers the full amount of tuition for Colorado undergraduates from the lowest-income households; it aids more than 4,000 students each year, with the average annual grant per student amounting to $5,400. CSU Pueblo recently launched a similar program, called the Colorado Promise scholarship; during the 2023-2024 academic year, it helped 68 students with grants averaging $1,200 per student, records show.
Of adults interviewed, only 24% knew about the programs offering free tuition, 69% did not know about the programs, and 7% had no opinion, according to the CSU System 2023 Image and Awareness Survey.
Student debt is another key area of concern among adults living in Colorado, the survey revealed. Here are the findings on that point:
Concern about student loan debt for Colorado residents attending CSU in Fort Collins
Source: CSU System 2023 Image and Awareness Survey.
Yet, those surveyed had mistaken impressions about student loan debt. Here is a look at suppositions regarding the amount of debt among in-state undergraduates earning degrees from CSU in Fort Collins:
Assumptions about debt among in-state students graduating from CSU in Fort Collins
Source: CSU System 2023 Image and Awareness Survey.
In this case, the minority was correct. Here is what debt for full-time, in-state students actually looks like nationally and at Colorado State University, the CSU System’s flagship campus in Fort Collins:
Student loan debt – the facts
CSU, 2021 – 2022
52% graduated with debt.
48% had no debt.
NATIONALLY, 2021 – 2022
50% of bachelor’s degree recipients from public four-year institutions graduated with debt.
50% had no debt.
Source: CSU Institutional Research; College Board, Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid, 2023
Debt among Colorado residents graduating from the state’s public institutions has been on a steady downward trend since 2014, according to the Colorado Department of Higher Education.
“For most people, the difference between your earnings over the next 20 years and what they would have been without a college degree is going to be far more than enough to repay your loans,” said Baum, a leading national expert on college affordability. “There is no question that some borrowers struggle to repay their debts after they leave school. But the public discourse frequently exaggerates debt levels.”
Aside from issues of affordability, the majority of those surveyed said they have a favorable opinion of the CSU System and its three degree-granting campuses. They also deemed degrees from the campuses as valuable for graduates.
Opinions about degree value from CSU in Fort Collins
Source: CSU System 2023 Image and Awareness Survey.
Tony Frank, chancellor of the CSU System, said the views of degree value are heartening. “Higher education continues to be the surest path to economic prosperity and improved quality of life for Americans,” he said. “All of the data add up to a strong case for a renewed societal imperative – our country’s economic and democratic future requires that all of our children have access to an affordable and excellent system of education.”
Photo at top: CSU Pueblo.
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