College tuition was less than what today’s students pay for textbooks when Caron and Jack Knopoff attended Chicago’s Wright Junior College in the mid-1960s.

Tuition at what is now Wilbur Wright College was $24 per credit hour, Caron Knopoff says. To cover this cost, the couple, who were dating at the time, lived with their own parents and worked – Caron at an insurance agency and Jack at an accounting firm.

Caron later transferred to Northeastern Illinois University to complete her bachelor’s degree in primary education. There, she says tuition was around $200 a year. Jack completed a degree in accounting at Roosevelt University, paying $40 per credit hour.

“I thought it was so much compared to what we had paid before and we were so worried about it,” Caron says.

Graduating from college debt-free is uncommon today: Two-thirds of the class of 2017 graduated with student loans averaging $28,650, according to The Institute for College Access and Success.

Before the 1960s, student loans didn’t exist.Continue reading→