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Sprachcaffe Düsseldorf/FlickrSan Diego State University
All but one of the California State University campuses are on a new list produced by the U.S. Department of Education showing colleges with the fastest-rising tuition and fees – and those campuses will have to submit reports to the federal government explaining the rapid increase.
A set of 54 new lists released last week by the Department of Education shows which colleges have the highest and lowest tuition and "average net price" – the average price paid by full-time students after figuring in grants and scholarships. The lists also show which colleges have the fastest-rising tuition and net price.
Colleges where prices are rising at the fastest rate will be required to report why costs have gone up and what the institution will do to address them.
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The department had to create the lists as part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, according to a press release. The idea is that students can use the lists to compare costs at similar types of schools. The 54 lists are divided by sector, such as private, four-year universities or public two-year institutions.
So, for example, every CSU campus except Sonoma State University was in the top 5 percent of public four-year universities that raised tuition and fees at the highest rate from 2007-08 to 2009-10.
Tuition increases in that period ranged from 35 percent at Humboldt State University (from $3,843 to $5,171) to 47 percent at San Diego State University's Imperial Valley Campus (from $2,906 to $4,260).
CSU spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp said that during the period examined by the federal government, the university saw a cut of a little more than $600 million in state funding. That caused CSU schools to ask students to make up some of that lost revenue. He said a CSU education is still a comparatively good deal.
"If you look at where we started from, we've always been on the low side," he said. "We're still extremely affordable, even after the tuition increases we've gone through, when compared to the institutions we're compared with."
Even though the CSU campuses are seeing the fastest-growing prices, five of them still show up on the Department of Education's list of public four-year universities with the lowest net price: Dominguez Hills, Los Angeles, Fullerton, Fresno and Bakersfield.
So what about the other sectors? Five California colleges show up on the list of private, nonprofit four-year universities with the highest tuition: Pitzer College, the University of Southern California, Occidental College, Scripps College and Stanford University.
And 98 of the state's community colleges offer the lowest tuition compared with other public two-year institutions.
Here's a sampling of California institutions that hit the highs and lows of the college cost spectrum:
HIGHEST TUITION
Platt College-Los Angeles: Private for-profit, four-year or above ($33,919)
The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising-Orange County: Private for-profit, two-year ($25,536)
HIGHEST NET PRICES
Brooks Institute: Private for-profit, four-year or above ($51,223)
Art Center College of Design: Private not-for-profit, four-year or above ($39,672)
College of Marin: Public two-year ($12,416)
LOWEST TUITION
Chabot College: Public two-year ($560)
World Mission University: Private not-for-profit, four-year or above ($3,940)
LOWEST NET PRICES
Porterville College: Public two-year ($2,850)
Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon Chabad West Coast Talmudical Seminary: Private not-for-profit, four-year or above ($8,107)
FASTEST-RISING TUITION
West Coast University: Private for-profit, four-year or above (44 percent, to $22,565)
Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science: Private not-for-profit, four-year or above (59 percent, to $11,300)
Los Angeles ORT College: Private not-for-profit, two-year (67 percent, to $16,050)
Marinello Schools of Beauty: Private for-profit, less-than-two-year (251 percent, to $16,075)
FASTEST-RISING NET PRICES
International Academy of Design and Technology: Private for-profit, four-year or above (1,005 percent, to $25,435)
California State University-East Bay: Public, four-year or above (73 percent, to $7,105)
World Mission University: Private not-for-profit, four-year or above (230 percent, to $12,114)
Rio Hondo College: Public, two-year (82 percent, to $6,694)
Los Angeles ORT College-Van Nuys: Private not-for-profit, two-year (87 percent, to $15,168)
InterCoast Colleges: Private for-profit, less-than-two-year (312 percent, to $22,270)
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