College cost projections, in short
This calculator takes today's average cost for a given college type, compounds it forward at your assumed inflation rate to the year your child enrolls, then adds up all the years of attendance. On the defaults — a 5-year-old headed to public in-state college in 13 years — today's $26,840-a-year cost becomes $50,610.82 in year one alone, and $218,138.97 across all four years.
Key takeaways
- For a 5-year-old headed to public in-state college at 5% inflation, today's $26,840/year cost becomes $50,610.82 by freshman year — nearly double, from 13 years of inflation alone.
- The full 4-year projected cost comes to $218,138.97. $10,000 in current savings growing at 6% only reaches $21,772.37 by enrollment, leaving a $196,366.61 gap that takes about $834.02 a month to close.
- Choosing private college instead of public in-state more than doubles the projected total: $472,607.35 versus $218,138.97 for the same 4 years and inflation assumption.
- The inflation rate assumption drives most of the swing in the final number — this calculator defaults to 5%, matching the historical pattern of college costs rising faster than general inflation.
How this calculator projects future costs
Each year of college gets its own inflation factor, based on how many years from now that specific year lands — not one blanket multiplier for the whole degree:
Year 1 (13 years out): $26,840 × 1.05^13 ≈ $50,610.82
Year 2 (14 years out): $26,840 × 1.05^14 ≈ $53,141.36
Year 3 (15 years out): $26,840 × 1.05^15 ≈ $55,798.43
Year 4 (16 years out): $26,840 × 1.05^16 ≈ $58,588.35
Add those four years together and the total comes to $218,138.97 — each year costing meaningfully more than the last, since inflation keeps compounding the whole time your child is enrolled, not just before.
The savings gap: what compounding can and can't close
Your existing savings get the same compounding treatment, just working in your favor: $10,000 growing at 6% for 13 years reaches $21,772.37 — more than doubling, but nowhere near the $218,138.97 target. The remaining $196,366.61 gap is what the monthly savings figure is solving for, spread across 156 months at that same 6% growth rate: about $834.02 a month. Notice that even with reasonable growth, existing savings alone rarely close a gap this size — the monthly contribution is doing most of the work, not the market.
Why college type changes the number so much
Today's average annual cost varies enormously by school type — from about $13,860 for community college up to $58,150 for private, before any inflation is applied. Run the same 5% inflation and 13-year horizon on private college instead of public in-state, and the 4-year projected total jumps from $218,138.97 to $472,607.35 — more than double, entirely from the choice of school type. That's worth testing early: the gap between "probably public" and "possibly private" is often bigger than any single savings decision.
Why the inflation rate assumption matters so much
College costs have historically climbed faster than general consumer inflation, which is why this calculator defaults to 5% rather than a more typical 2-3% CPI figure. Over 13 years, even a couple of percentage points of difference in that assumption compounds into a materially different target — small enough to feel arbitrary when you're setting it, large enough to change your monthly savings number substantially by the time it's compounded over a decade or more.
Related calculators
To model the savings side of this plan on its own, see the savings calculator or compound interest calculator. To see how college savings fits alongside the rest of your monthly spending, the budget calculator puts it in context.