I read an Associated Press article in Thursday’s Daily titled, “Survey says college costs overestimated,” and I thought it meant colleges are overestimating how much they really need to charge. I silently thought to myself, “Maybe we won’t get a tuition raise this time around.”

Well, I was wrong. The survey stated parents who were asked the annual tuition of a four-year public college thought it was around $5,600 when the national average in 1998 was $3,200. Iowa State costs $2,171 per semester for in-state undergraduates.

Here is the problem with the survey. Where are these students going to live? I know when my parents and I started thinking about colleges, we didn’t think only about tuition, but also living costs. The cheapest place to live on campus is Knapp Hall at $2,592 for the year, but unfortunately, this hall is closing at the end of the semester.

For the spring semester, the cheapest place to live on campus will be a “standard” residence hall — that means Friley and the RCA area. This costs $3,040 per year. Add tuition and housing together, and it’s $7,382 for the year. That’s about $2,000 more than parents were thought it was going to be in the article.

They aren’t overestimating costs but underestimating them. They need to make sure they know what the full amount of college is going to be. Surveys like these are misleading and could trick families into false hopes of a cheap college life.

Justin Shapiro

Junior

Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management