Try more like $25k per year for a public state school nowadays, unless you commute from home. At least that's what it costs at the public state university I graduated from (Illinois State). According to their site for Freshman starting Fall 2019: Tuition and Fees: $14k, Room and Board: $10k. They added on Personal Expenses, Books, and Transportation in their estimate as well and got $31k per year.

When I first went to that college in the late 90s, it was $6k a year, including room and board. I had a full-ride scholarship (which I wasn't able to hang on to for more than 3 semesters, but that's another story), and it was going to pay $24k total for all four years. Now it's that much for 1 year.

By the way, if tuition followed inflation AT ALL (i.e. I checked an inflation calculator), the cost would have only increased to $9k a year, including room and board. Clearly the price tag of college has just increased out of control for the past 20 years.

https://financialaid.illinoisstate.edu/paying/cost/table-gro...

State colleges really vary by state. I grew up in Pennsylvania and when I graduated, our in-state tuition was already the highest in the country at around 16k. Now it's nearly $23k a year just for tuition in PA [0]. I went to a private college with nearly quadruple the sticker price and was actually paying less than my peers who went to Pitt and Penn State.

You're right about the community college. That is absolutely a way to save money, but in states like PA, you'd still have to pay nearly $46k for tuition alone. That's not including housing or transportation costs. It's not as easy as "2 years at community college and then transfer to a state school" for everyone.

[0]http://www.collegecalc.org/colleges/pennsylvania/

This. My daughter will be going to college in a year, and it'll cost about $8k annually. She'll live at home, drive a 15 year old hand me down car, and have to miss out on all the social stuff that non-commuters enjoy. But hopefully she'll graduate with 0 debt. My wife wants her to spend the first year on campus, and I always counter with "Is that experience worth $12K in debt?"

In my experience, it is. College can be lonely and difficult, compounded with your highschool friends largely dispersing around the country during that time. I made friends in the dorms I still see regularly today, made many more from friends of friends in the dorms as well.