Annaliese Roegner

Brandon Stephens
MTH 1010
24 April 2023
Final Project Paper
As college students, it is hugely important that we are aware of the cost of college and
how we will pay it off in the future. It is important to remember that underlying any university
the students are customers, because of this they will inevitably have to pay for their education.
Because college can be so intensive students wait until after college to begin worrying about
payment. Students take out loans during their four years or more and then take it as a guarantee
that they will be paying off their college education for the rest of their life.
It can take the average person anywhere from 20 years up to 45 years to repay student
loans. To put this in perspective, high school graduates transfer to college at the age of 18. The
average college program is 4-8 years, meaning the student will graduate college anywhere from
the age of 22 to 26. After entering the workforce, the person can finally begin paying off loans
for their college education. This means that with 8 years of school and with 45 years of paying
loan debt, the average person will be 67 before their college tuition is finally paid off.
To avoid this problem and become more aware of what I will be paying in the future for
my college education, I calculated the cost of my college tuition and other fees. I then subtracted
my current scholarships and grants and estimated what they may be for the future. After
calculating this I used APR and annuity formulas to calculate the total cost of my college and
found monthly payment amounts for 10 and 20 years respectively, and then calculated the total
gross expense.
During the school year of 2022 – 2023 my total college costs came to $52,210. I then
received $41,155 in scholarships and grants bringing my total cost of college loans for 2022 –
2023 down to $11,055. For the year of 2023 – 2024 my total cost of college increased to
$52,750. With my previous scholarships and decreased grant, my total FASFA for the year came
to $34, 310 meaning my total cost of college loans came to $18,440. By calculating the percent
change I also found that the increase in the price of college each year can be estimated around
1.03%.
I have completed one year of college and have 3-4 years left depending on whether or not
I can finish my architecture program early based on my transferred credits. I have finalized
financial information for 2022 up until the Spring of 2024. This means that I also needed to
calculate the total cost of my loans for my remaining 2-3 years of college. Using the 1.03%
annual increase in the cost of tuition, I calculated the future costs of college. I then subtracted my
lowest scholarship and grant rate to find my loan amount. For 2024 – 2025 the total cost of
college came to $53,278; subtracting $34,310 from FASFA my total loans for 2023-2024
decreased to $18,968. For the year of 2025 – 2026 the total cost of college will be $53, 810;
subtracting $34,310 from FASFA money brings my total loans to $19,000. For 2026 – 2027 my
total tuition is $54,348. Subtracting $34,310, again for FASFA, brings the total loan amount to
$20,038.
Through these calculations I found that the total amount of my loans will likely come to
$70,401 at the end of my college education. If I make a monthly payment of $801.00, my loans
can be paid off in 10 years. This will mean that the total amount I pay for college will be
$96,100. If I make a monthly payment of $527.00, I can pay off my college loans in 20 years.
This will mean that I spent a total of $126,375 for my college education.
I made one other calculation in which I calculated for only 4 years of college and took
into account the fact that I will likely have a higher grant for the year of 2024 – 2025. With these
different calculations my total amount of loans that I will need to take out comes down to
$38,240. With a monthly payment of $435.00 I can pay off my loans in 10 years bringing the
total amount I pay to $52,190. If I take 20 years to pay off the loan and make monthly payments
of $287.00 my total payment amount will be $68, 643.
To put things in further perspective, I am currently 18, meaning, I will graduate when I
am either 22 or 23. Then depending on which path I take (the 10 year or the 20 year path), I can
have my loans paid off when I am either 33 or 43. It is vital that I become aware of this now so
that I do not graduate college and unknowingly put myself in debt for 45 more years. College is
only one of the costs of life as far as budgeting goes. Although a monthly payment of something
from $800 to $287 may not seem like a large amount alone, when compared with the price of
living, this amount is shocking. The “average” US resident makes around $6,000 a month,
meaning the cost of college loan repayment could be 13% of my income for the next 20 years.
Through being aware of this now, I can prepare myself for graduation, and, hopefully, not spend
the rest of my life accumulating college loan debt.
 Works Cited
Welding, Lyss. “Average Student Loan Interest Rates: BestColleges.” BestColleges.com, 3 Oct.
2022, https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/student-loan-interest-rates.
Hanson, Melanie. “Average Time to Pay off Student Loans [2021]: Data Analysis.”
EducationData, 17 Aug. 2021, educationdata.org/average-time-to-repay-student-loans.
“Cost Estimators | Belmont University | Nashville, TN.” Www.belmont.edu,
www.belmont.edu/sfs/cost/index.html.