--- title: Finally, Some Good News About College Costs! description: New Deloitte survey shows that college students expect to to spend less each year on their back to school supplies. authors: - name: Greg Daugherty url: https://money.com/author/greg-daugherty/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 22 covers: - Education - Business - Economy and Politics - Lifestyle - Personal Finance former_staff: true published: '2016-07-29T15:01:39.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T03:05:29.000Z' section: Education tags: - back to school - College - college costs - colleges - Deloitte - saving money - school supplies - Shopping word_count: 223 canonical: https://money.com/finally-some-good-news-about-college-costs/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** Money may earn a commission when you click on the products and services below. Opinions are our own, but compensation and in-depth research determine where and how they appear. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/) about how we make money. ![College student reaching in car moving into dorm](https://img.money.com/2016/07/160729_col_goodcollegenews.jpg) Here’s some welcome news on college costs (and these days we’ll take any we can get): Back-to-school spending appears to decline with each successive year of college, according to a just-released [survey of college students and parents](http://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/consumer-business/articles/back-to-college-survey.html) by Deloitte. Freshman in the survey said they expected to spend an average of $1,352 this year, sophomores $1,120, juniors $1,096, and seniors $845. The biggest differences were between freshmen and sophomores ($232) and juniors and seniors ($251). When asked why they expected to spend less, students typically said they need fewer or less-expensive items or that their household has less money, Deloitte reports. Of course, one reason their households may have less money is that not all college costs decline each year. In fact, [tuition and fees went up nearly 3%](https://money.com/college-board-tuition-cost-rose-inflation-2015/) on average last year, substantially exceeding the inflation rate overall, according to the College Board. In case you could use a few more ways to save on back-to-college costs, here’s some free advice from Money’s experts: [Save Big Bucks on College Dorm Shopping This Year](https://money.com/college-dorm-room-shopping-save-money/) 17 States With Tax-Free Weekends for Back-to-School Items This Month [12 Banned Items to Leave Off Your College Shopping List](https://money.com/what-not-to-pack-for-college/) One last tip: Enjoy those senior-year savings while you can. The Deloitte survey reports that graduate students expected their spending to average $1,129, roughly the same as college sophomores. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/finally-some-good-news-about-college-costs/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Education", "item": "https://money.com/education/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Paying for College", "item": "https://money.com/paying-for-college/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Finally, Some Good News About College Costs!" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/finally-some-good-news-about-college-costs/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/finally-some-good-news-about-college-costs/", "name": "Finally, Some Good News About College Costs!", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-07-29T15:01:39.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/finally-some-good-news-about-college-costs/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/finally-some-good-news-about-college-costs/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T03:05:29.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Finally, Some Good News About College Costs!", "articleSection": "Education", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/07/160729_col_goodcollegenews.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1400, "caption": "160729_COL_GOODCOLLEGENEWS" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Greg Daugherty", "url": "https://money.com/author/greg-daugherty/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/greg-daugherty/#author" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-07-29T15:01:39.000Z", "description": "New Deloitte survey shows that college students expect to to spend less each year on their back to school supplies.", "abstract": "New Deloitte survey shows that college students expect to to spend less each year on their back to school supplies.", "@id": "https://money.com/finally-some-good-news-about-college-costs/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T03:05:29.000Z", "wordCount": 223, "keywords": [ "back to school", "College", "college costs", "colleges", "Deloitte", "saving money", "school supplies", "Shopping" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Education", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Student financial aid in the United States", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_financial_aid_in_the_United_States" ] } ] } ] } ```