“Having come of age during the Great Recession of 2008, many of today’s students have experienced a financial wake-up call,” says Linda Descano, a managing director at Citi. They saw the havoc the recession wreaked on their parents’ lives, adds Ann Shoket, editor-in-chief of Seventeen magazine. “Students are starting blogs and video production companies,” she says. “They want to start their careers before they leave college.”
Another possible explanation: Parents are kicking in less of money for college. Parents still pay for most of the average family’s total college expenses. But their contribution, including from savings, income and loans, averaged 37% in 2011, down from 47% the year before, according to the “How America Pays for College” survey by student-loan company Sallie Mae. “Kids used to rely on the bank of mom and dad,” Descano says. “So many families are trying to work themselves out of the financial impact of the Great Recession.”
The cost of tuition has risen dramatically in recent years for most educational institutions, studies show. The cost of undergraduate tuition — including room and board — surged 42% in the past 10 years (adjust for inflation) to $13,600 at public institutions for the 2010-11 academic year; it rose 31% to $36,300 at private nonprofit institutions over the same period, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics.