Date:
June 11, 2019
Costs Rising
The average cost a student incurs during one year of a Public In-State program including housing, books, and other expenses is $25,890USD.[4] If a student invested that money in Netflix in September of 2015 and withdrew that investment four years later in September 2018, they would have $98,000USD in the bank.[5]
Huge Environmental Impact
One in three people aged 18-24 are forecasted to buy at least one piece of second-hand clothing in 2019. This will save over 11 million kg of non-renewable resources which is equivalent to the amount of gas a 26mpg car would use driving around the earth 1,280 times.[6]
Time Is Entertainment, Time Is Money
92% of students have access to a Netflix account and watch a little over 50 minutes per day per user (we know… it sounds low).[7] If these students put that time into working at McDonald’s, they would make $2,500/year based on a wage of $8.22/hr.
Appetite for Deals
70% of college students are working while enrolled and graduate with an average of $37,172 in student loans.[8][9] This is leaving new grads very money conscious after completing their education. If you took all the students in the graduating class of 2018 and summed up their debt, it would equal more than the 2018 US federal budget for the department of agriculture, homeland security, health and human services.[10]
Book Prices Sky-Rocketing?
65% of students skip buying required books at some point in their college careers due to a lack of affordability. Students spend an average of $1,240USD on textbooks per year.[4] This is because the average cost of college textbooks has risen four times faster than the rate of inflation over the past 10 years.[11]
Student Discretionary Spending
The discretionary spending of US college students in 2018 topped $212 billion.[16] This means that the students in US spend more than the total revenue generated in 2018 from BMW, Audi, and Porsche combined.
How Students Combat High Prices
Buying and selling second-hand (textbooks, clothing, shoes, electronics, etc.) can put almost $2,000 in students’ pockets annually.[19] Thanks to apps like Mijem, students can rack up $8,000 over the course of a four-year education… Enough for a one-week all-inclusive grad trip to Punta Cana for 8 people.
Sources
- https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372
- https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/181128/dq181128c-eng.htm
- https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/
- https://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-estimated-undergraduate-budgets-2018-19
- https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NFLX/
- https://www.thredup.com/resale
- https://lendedu.com/blog/netflix-millennials-viewers-not-subscribers/
- https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/workinglearners/
- https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/15/heres-how-much-the-average-student-loan-borrower-owes-when-they-graduate.html
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-presidential-budget-2018-proposal/?utm_term=.5ea78cf055c4
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whats-behind-the-soaring-cost-of-college-textbooks/
- https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2018-03-06/11-national-universities-where-students-rarely-bring-cars
- https://www.lawa.org/en/lawa-investor-relations/statistics-for-lax/10-year-summary/passengers
- https://psychcentral.com/news/2014/08/31/new-study-finds-cell-phone-addiction-increasingly-realistic-possibility/74312.html
- https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/are-you-on-your-phone-too-much-average-person-spends-this-many-hours-on-it-every-day.html
- https://www.sheerid.com/marketing-to-college-students/
- https://www.party0.org/how-much-college-students-spend-alcohol/
- https://thefederalist.com/2016/09/11/study-college-students-spend-far-time-playing-studying/
- https://www.kijiji.ca/kijijicentral/general/get-ready-college-budget/