September 15, 2011

Charts: Shocking Stats on College Costs

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Wondering if you’ll ever afford it? Check out the last-resort methods our readers turned to to pay for their degrees.

Sticker Shock

Tuition at private and public colleges climbed steadily over the last decade:

Tuition, 2000-2009 (in thousands)

Deeper in Debt

The amount that students owe quintupled between 2000 and 2011.

School vs. Shopping

In 2010, for the first time ever, Americans’ outstanding student loans exceeded their total credit card debt:

Sources: College Board; Mark Kantrowitz, Fastweb.com

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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