$5,000 in mid 60s=$30,000 now adjusted for inflation-but our dormitories were much more spartan and fewer free campus amenities--give me few admenities,great scholastics,and lower tuition
I would adjust the $5,000 to closer to $50,000 today, but who's quibbling. It's a lot. I have a daughter who is a college freshman, and, believe me, it is expensive. She's at a relatively small, private, religously-affiliated, liberal arts college that the Fiske Guide rates as a "Best Buy", but the total is still over $30,000 a year when you figure in books, music lessons, a little pocket money (which she earned working last summer) and travel.
When I applied to college in the mid-1960s, my middle-class parents wouldn't even let me apply for scholarships: since they felt they could afford, with a lot of scrimping, to pay for college, the didn't want me taking money away from someone who couldn't have gone to college without the scholarship aid.
How times change: I see kids in our very wealthy suburb (average house worth about $1.3 million, average income probably well over $200k per year) fighting for merit scholarships and athletic scholarships, even when their parents have net worths in excess of $25 million.