I always read about the increasing costs of college, but, as it's been a while since I've been collegiate myself, I decided to do a little investigation on the actual numbers. So, below I offer the estimated tuition and total costs of a year of college at various state and private universities in the United States. I got this info straight from the colleges' Web sites, and each college breaks things out a little differently, with some lumping tuition and fees and others breaking things out in a more detailed fashion, so this is not a strict apples-to-apples comparison. Also, I offer no substantiation that this is scientific in any way. In addition, I chose schools completely at random, meaning any other school you could think of was not researched at all. This is simply a way to get an idea of what a year of schooling costs.

For state schools I offer both in-state and out-of-state estimates. While I show tuition numbers, I think the more relevant numbers are the overall cost estimates, which take into account room and board, meal plans, books and other potential expenses. Here we go:

University of Oklahoma: In-State Tuition: $5,709, Overall yearly cost: $13,671 (Out of state: $13,998 tuition, $21,960 overall)

University of Florida: In-State Tuition: 3,330 Overall yearly cost: $14,370. (Out of state: $17,860 tuition, $28,910 overall)

Mississippi State: In-State Tuition: $4,596 Overall yearly cost: $14,885 (Out of state: $10,552 tuition, $20,841 overall)

Michigan State: In-Sate Tuition: $7,665 Overall yearly cost: $14,937 (Out of state: $20,310 tuition, $27,582 overall)

Arizona State: In-State Tuition: $4,821 Overall yearly cost: $17,071 (Out of state: $16,853 tuition, $29,103 overall)

University of Maine: In-State Tuition $7,464, Overall yearly cost: $17,138 (Out of state: $18,414 tuition, $28,088 overall)

Texas A&M: In-State Tuition: $6,966, Overall yearly cost: $18,516 (Out of state: $15,266 tuition, $26,766 overall)

Auburn: In-State Tuition: $5,786, Overall yearly cost: $18,630 (Out of state: $16,286 tuition, $29,130 overall)

Washington State: In-State Tuition: $6,290 Overall yearly cost: $19,110 (Out of state: $16,604 tuition, $29,424 overall)

University of Maryland: In-State Tuition: $7,906 Overall yearly cost: $20,303 (Out of state: $21,345 tuition, $33,742 overall)

University of Denver: Tuition: $31,428 Overall yearly cost: $40,929

Williamette University: Tuition: $31,865 Overall yearly cost: $41,335

Syracuse University: Tuition: $28,820 Overall yearly cost: $43,450

Harvard: Tuition: $30,275 Overall yearly cost: $46,450

Cornell: Tuition: $34,781, Overall yearly cost: $48,200

So, on the low end, you're generally talking about a $50,000 to $75,000 outlay in order to get a four-year degree, while on the high end, you're rapidly approaching $200,000 to get through four years. And this of course assuming a student gets out in four years, which many find it difficult to do.

Nothing too surprising in who's expensive and who's cheap, although there was wider disparity among the costs of state schools than I would have expected. Also, I had it in my head that Harvard would be the most expensive by a wide margin, or at least have few others in its league cost-wise, but that's not the case at all. Harvard ain't cheap, but it certainly has plenty of companions in the did-I-hear-you-correctly-how-much-did-you-say? league of high-cost schools.