Yeah when I went to school, it was 750 a semester plus about 500 in books.
This 30K -40K crap is so hippie professors can live the good life.
From 1968-1972, I went to a private school with annual tuition at about $3,000/year. I think the average annual increase since then has been abut 5%, to about $23,000/year.
After my time in WWII service I took the GI bill for college. I ended up by circumstances and choice of Chem Eng at UC Berkeley, CA. I was an out of state student so I (or Government) paid out only $350.00 per semester tuition. What a bargain to be in with such notables as Seaborg, Teller, Alvarez, Hildebrand, and many other faculty members of all engineering disciplines needed for my degree. Now I see my todays cost would be around $11 to $12 Thousand a semester or more as an out of state student. I can realize that costs have up to the sky but I do wonder if there more involved than just education. By the way I still consider CAL one of the best in the world for my field.
Pupils need not buy most books, as test questions come almost entirely from in-class presentations. But the professors cannot say the book is unneeded, or administrators and the book store will come down on them. I suggest that one try for a couple of weeks without buying the book and see what happens. Even in math class, the books are often useless, but in many cases essential to doing the practice exercises.