And $26k is still insane, at least compared to when I went to school in the 90s. It’s tough these days.

According to a random inflation calculator off the front page of a search (no doubt a sterling source of information) that's about $14,500 equivalent dollars.

How does that compare to what you paid?

I paid $2700/year for tuition, $295/month for rent on a basement apartment (this is Seattle, so even in the 90s rents were kind of high on something nicer), and skimped on food way too much.

Like I said, it was easier in those days. Dad paid my tuition, I paid everything else with a minimum wage job (and later internships, upgrading my apartment to a nicer university provided $425/month).

Doing the math, it was way less than $10k.

Yep, my Bachelor's in CS and Math from at SUNY school was $2750/semester plus room and board. I worked summers, worked on campus, got a job on campus that provided a room, and took out just a couple of loans. I don't actually know how much my degrees cost me, but it was less than $50K and my family and I struggled to pay for it. My first job out of school in '95 was a whopping $35K/yr and some benes.

I'm looking at the SUNY website and it looks like tuition, fees, room and board is about $27K a year now. It's about double what it cost me, roughly $108K for four years.