Tuition, fees, housing, a meal plan, books — supplies required to attend the University all add up.
The cost of attending the University each year totals about $20,500 for Louisiana residents, close to half of the average household income of $44,673, according to the U.S. Census bureau.
Students in Louisiana can receive help paying for tuition with TOPS scholarships, which started in 1989, but some students, like biology freshman Jalen Johnson, start saving money for college years before they send their application.
Johnson said she started working in 10th grade to save for the expenses her TOPS scholarship didn’t cover, because TOPS only covers her tuition.
“It came out to about 23,000 this year all together,” Johnson said. “Its hard to work and go to school.”
Johnson said she doesn’t currently work, but other students work jobs either on campus or off to make ends meet.
Victoria Kraus, a pre-pharmacy freshman, said her family saved money to pay for her college for years. They created a fund for her and made it available to her when she turned 18 years old. The fund pays for her living expenses and books.
Kraus said she works at the Health Center and lives off of campus to save money. Her money-saving efforts combined with her TOPS scholarship make attending the University less of a strain on her family.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, some students still end up paying close to one-third of their family’s annual income.
The Chronicle reported that some universities offer need-based financial aid to students, but they calculate the students income differently than the government when deciding a student’s classification, which moves some lower-income students into higher-income brackets.
At the University of Notre Dame, students’ whose household income classification causes them to be moved means they sometime pay more than one-third of their annual income, The Chronicle reported.
Even though tuition, fees and living expenses are close to one-half of the average family’s income, the cost of attending the University per student is below average according to LSU President F. King Alexander, who brought college affordability up at the September Board of Supervisors meeting.
Alexander said the University runs one of the lowest cost-per-student programs compared to similar universities and is number 19 out of 46 in graduate starting salaries. Alexander said the University was a place of low inputs and high outputs.
For the current academic year, the average in-state tuition for one semester at a public university is $8,893, and the average amount students pay is $3,120, but college tuition rises at double the inflation rate of the dollar, according to the College Board.
University students who have lost their TOPS scholarship, or who don’t qualify for TOPS because they can’t claim residency in Louisiana, find themselves in similar situations to those at Notre Dame.
Preston Galatas, a native of Louisiana who graduated from high school in The Woodlands, Texas, said his father saved money from the day he was born to send him to the University.
“I came to LSU because I’m from Louisiana, and there’s nothing like it in Texas,” Galatas said. “In-state tuition and fees at a good school in Texas would cost about the same as LSU.”
Galatas said he received scholarships to lower the $38,000 per year cost for out-of-state students to attend the University. He said he is always looking for more scholarships to lower it further.
Alexander said in August that because the University runs on tuition dollars, it relies on its out-of-state tuition to keep the lights on and the doors open. The University’s out-of-state fee is $8,859, according to the Office of Budget and Planning.
Business administration sophomore Jordan Streva said he has had to take out loans since losing his TOPS scholarship last year.
According to a report from the Louisiana Board of Regents, 11 percent of students who receive TOPS scholarships lose their eligibility during their freshman year. A majority of them lose eligibility because they fail to earn 24 credit hours per academic year.
Streva said he has had to take out about $3,500 in loans to pay for his second semester at the University.
Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Ann Duplessis said she wants to increase the results for students who attend LSU schools, making the University the school of choice for students. She wants to see the value of a University degree value increase compared to its cost.