# 4163.566% increase in Tutorial costs

1. Apr 27, 2009

### vorcil

1950 the average cost per semester of university in New Zealand was 129$it is now$5500 per semester,
these are averages

strange huh?
what's it like in America? you always see in movies of high schoolers wanting to get scholarships to go to college because they can't afford it

another funny thing, in new zealand, college new zealand = high school american
and university new zealand = college american

2. Apr 27, 2009

Staff Emeritus
In 1950, there was no NZ dollar. Assuming you mean the dollar equivalent, the average inflation rate over the last 59 years in NZ was 6.03%. The average increase in university costs was 6.57%. The average increase above inflation is 0.51%.

3. Apr 27, 2009

### Flat

With tution and fees, it costs over $11,000 where I'm at in the U.S. My boss said that when she went to school it was under$2,000 per year. Note I consider her an unreliable source for a lot of things though

4. Apr 27, 2009

As Vanadium already pointed out you have to multiply by the value of money. If money was about 8 times more valuable back then (reasonable guess), that means her tuition would be more like under $16,000 in current dollars.. 5. Apr 27, 2009 ### vorcil the 5500 is per semester so 11,000 sounds about right, except in us dollars it's probably equivlalent to 15,000 us dollars or something 6. Apr 27, 2009 ### rootX r = (5500-129)^(1/(2009-1950))-1 * 100 ~ 15% Isn't that bit too much if approximate inflation rate to 6-10%? oops.. 7%! Just put the number in Google without much a thought. (5500/129). It doesn't look that much Last edited: Apr 28, 2009 7. Apr 28, 2009 ### Moonbear Staff Emeritus And in 1950, you could buy a cup of coffee or an ice cream cone with a nickel, and a piece of candy with a penny. You also have to consider what a typical yearly salary was...in family where only the husband usually worked. With things like tuition, you also have to consider the difference between what students actually paid/pay, and what amount of tuition is covered by the state/federal funds, to figure out the actual cost of tuition, especially in places where education is heavily subsidized by tax funds. 8. Apr 28, 2009 ### junglebeast In 2008,$129.00 from 1950 is worth:

$1,153.41 using the Consumer Price Index$957.52 using the GDP deflator
$1,864.18 using the unskilled wage$3,119.51 using the nominal GDP per capita
\$6,263.22 using the relative share of GDP

There's clearly a lot of variability in these estimates, but the range does contain the modern price

9. Apr 28, 2009

### Flat

Opps, forgot to mention that she is only 10 years older.

10. Apr 29, 2009