For private institutions, the combined bill for private colleges rose 5.7 percent to $29,026 in 2005 (tuition and room & board and weighted for enrollment statistics) College Board report, "Trends in College Pricing 2005

"The average Student Loan Debt for the College Class of 2006 was $21,100.
The average credit-card debt for seniors in 2005 was $2,864." Fast Company Dec 2007

"Since 1983 the cost of keeping colleges running has outpaced the Consumer Price Index by 48%, according to the Commonfund Institute, a nonprofit that compiles a higher-education price index. And the prices that colleges charge have climbed even faster.” Forbes Nov 12, 2007

"In 1929 universities spent 8 cents of each operating budget dollar on administration; today they spend 14 cents, says Richard Vedder, an economics professor at Ohio University in Athens. In 1976, he says, colleges had three non-teaching professionals for every 100 students; 25 years later they had six.” Forbes Nov 12, 2007

Median hourly earnings of actors were $11.28 in May 2004.

"It turns out that where students go as undergraduates doesn't help them earn more money over their lifetimes, according to a 2002 study by Stacy Dale, a researcher at Mathematica Policy Research in Princeton, N.J., and Alan Krueger, a Princeton economics and public affairs professor. Their study looked at 14,238 full-time workers who were freshmen in 1976. The ones who were bright enough to get into the highest-ranked - but usually expensive schools but then didn't attend, did just as well in their careers as the students who did matriculate at those schools. ‘What we found is that it doesn't matter where you went to school, but who you are,’ Dale says.  Someday parents and students may wake up to this reality and balk at the prices being charged for a college education.  Until then, colleges can continue to be blasé about costs.” Forbes November 12, 2007 Article ‘Economics 101” – author Alex Davidson.

The number of US bachelors degrees that were in engineering at US colleges and universities has gone from 7.8% in 1985 to 4.6% in 2004. Tabulated by National Science Foundation/Division of Science Resources Statistics; data from Department of Education/National Center for Education Statistics: Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Completions Survey.

Student loans are usually not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

"In 2008 the 6 year average for college graduation in the US was 55.9%.  (but this does not count the students that start 2 year colleges).  For students starting a two-year college only 29.1% of these students have an associate degree 3 years later."

"In 2008, 63.3% of of U.S. high-school graduates enroll directly in college." 

"In 1940, 5.8% of the 25-29 year-olds were college graduates; in 1950, 7.7%. Thanks to the great tuition-free, state-supported system of higher education build after 1950, 16.4% of them had completed four or more years of college in 1970.” The Case Against College Caroline Bird, David McKay Company 1975

"College students are 50 percent more apt to kill themselves than people their age in general.” The Case Against College Caroline Bird, David McKay Company 1975

According to a report published by the Carnegie Foundation, non-monetary individual benefits of higher education include the tendency for postsecondary students to become more open-minded, more cultured, more rational, more consistent and less authoritarian; these benefits are also passed along to succeeding generations. Rowley and Hurtado, 2002

“Suicide is the second leading cause of death for college students.”

“1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries including motor vehicle accidents.”  

“More than 600,000 students between the ages of 18 and 25 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking.”   “What Parents Need to Know about College Drinking”  www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov