American Dream Ledger: Cost of College for Two

## What this measures

Average published undergraduate tuition and required fees, dormitory room and board at public four-year institutions for in-state students (NCES Digest Table 330.10), × four years × two children, in the month's dollars. Dollars, monthly.

## Why it matters

College is the price that has risen fastest for families over decades, and the one parents save toward longest.

## How to read it

Higher means college costs more. Each academic year (July to June) is NCES's published figure; months after the newest year move with the CPI college tuition, shelter and food-away indexes.

## What it does not say

These are published (sticker) charges before grants and scholarships; the net price most families pay is lower. Private colleges cost far more. NCES estimates room and board.

## How it is priced

Each month is priced in that month's dollars. Annual public figures (a BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey year, an NCES academic year, a CMS health-spending year) are the average for their own period: a month inside the period is the figure × the matching CPI-U index for the month ÷ its average over the period, and months after the newest published period carry that figure forward by the same index until the next edition replaces it. Nothing is projected forward and nothing is discounted: it is the price tag at today's prices. A month is written once its CPI and a full month of mortgage rates exist. October 2025 has no reading because BLS published no CPI for it.

## Assumptions

Assumptions used across the American Dream Ledger: an adult lifetime of 60 years (18 to 78, about the remaining period life expectancy at 18 in SSA's life tables); a working lifetime of 40 years (25 to 64); two adults and two children; a 30-year fixed mortgage with 20% down; four years of public in-state college per child; retirement of 20 years from 65 (about SSA's period life expectancy at 65, men and women averaged) at 70% of median household income. Weddings are left out: no public-domain source measures what a wedding costs.

## Source

Palanor calculation (src/lib/standards/american-dream.ts), recomputed daily by /api/cron/american-dream. Inputs: NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2024, Table 330.10 (public domain); CPI-U college tuition and fees (BLS), shelter and food away from home (BLS via FRED).