Tuition Through the Years

The tuition of York Junior College, after moving to the modern campus, is a subject of interest among college students, who are the people that care the most about how much an education costs. Below is a chart of tuition costs for a year of schooling with 30-32 credits, which is the same amount of credits that students are supposed to take in the current year. It also includes inflation adjustments in the short term, focused on 1968 as it marked the end of York Junior College and the start of the York College of Pennsylvania that exists today. Additionally, inflation for the year 2021 is included and none of the listed figures include any fees or housing costs. For comparison purposes, the expected tuition for the 2021-2022 semester is included as well, as are the three years before the move to the modern campus.

A few things become apparent when analyzing this data. First and most importantly, York Junior College did not constantly increase the cost of tuition in order to keep up with the rate that the US dollar was inflating at, instead increasing it in large increments every few years. This would imply that the college didn’t embark on many expensive projects, and that those that were embarked upon may have been covered by the 9.09% increase in 1961, and by the 25% increase in 1966 (York College, 1960-1961, pp. 9-27). It should be noted that, with inflation accounted for, these increases are 7.99% and 21.52% respectively. The second observation is that, even with inflation adjustments, the tuition at York College has massively increased since the late 1960s, with today’s tuition being almost four times the amount that it was in 1968. This follows the general trend of colleges across the country, but it is no less startling to see. A private education was still expensive in the 1960s, but it can’t be said enough that the cost of a good education has gone up far more than it should have over the last six decades, adding a burden to students other than class requirements.