Students at the University of Massachusetts, hit by several years of major fee increases triggered by state budget cuts, saw only a modest rise this year, according to figures provided by the university system. Tuition and fees rose by just 0.3 percent at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, to $9,008. The highest increases were at the Dartmouth and Lowell campuses, where tuition rose 2.3 percent, to $7,802 at Dartmouth and $7,891 at Lowell. UMass-Boston saw a 2.2 percent increase to $8,024.
As costs rise, students are turning increasingly to private loans to pay for school, according to the College Board. Students borrowed $11.3 billion last year from nonfederal sources, mostly private lenders.
That amount has risen 147 percent in three years, the board found -- although the true figure is almost certainly higher, because the survey does not include credit card debt, which as many as one-quarter of college students may be relying on to finance their education.
Education specialists say college loans, usually at guaranteed low interest rates, generally represent a good investment for students -- but caution that the trend toward paying tuition with loans rather than grants can be hard on poorer students.
''For low-income students it's particularly difficult, because they don't have family resources on which to fall back to help them repay their loans," said Sandy Baum, senior policy analyst with the College Board and an economist at Skidmore College.
Price increases were more modest at two-year public colleges, where tuition and fees rose 8.7 percent this year to $2,076, and at private colleges, where costs rose 6 percent on average to $20,082.
Factoring in room and board, prices at public four-year schools rose 7.8 percent to $11,354. Costs at private institutions were up 5.6 percent to $27,516. Of course, most students don't pay the full sticker price -- in 2003, the average full-time equivalent student saw those figures shrink by an average $4,500 in grants and tax benefits.
In the current year, the net costs of higher education have probably gone up, though the College Board can't yet say for sure because student aid data are a year behind the tuition price data.
