My experience was only 7 years ago. I don't think it's a generational difference so much as the fact that a university is a big place, enough so that even if you engage actively with 100+ people you won't see the whole picture.

It has gotten a lot more expensive and competitive. I’m almost embarrassed to mention how crazy cheap my school was in 1995 compared to 2025. Also, I doubt I would have gotten in with my high school achievements even though I graduated in a fairly decent cum laude position. Life for kids these days is a lot tougher.

The numbers I quoted were current prices for the school/city I attended (UND, if anyone wants to cross check). When I attended prices were lower, but so were wages and a number of other things, roughly proportionally AFAICT.

I could maybe see your point about admittance (I had something like a D average, maybe C- or C+ or something, in high school), but I think my financial estimates were about correct. Is something majorly incorrect?

Even if so, there are a dozen cheaper states in the country with halfway decent programs (if any future internet denizen is reading this, Fayetteville Arkansas is actually great for math right now, both in quality and in cost/jobs). I doubt my observations are too far off-base for a typical student trying to go to school economically.