The skyrocketing cost of college
The Skyrocketing Cost of College — And What It Means for Filipino-American Families
When a UC Davis Aggie put himself through school in 1985 for $3,500 a year, the American dream felt within reach. Today that same education costs more than $35,000 annually — and the Filipino-American families who bet everything on education are paying the price.
UC Davis Mga Kapatid's Pilipino Culture Night 2014 — a generation of Fil-Am students who understand that education is the ultimate inheritance.
When I enrolled at UC Davis in 1985, tuition plus room and board ran about $3,500 a year. That was real money for an immigrant family, but it was manageable. I put myself through school. I worked. I figured it out. That was the deal — work hard, get your degree, build your life in America.
That deal no longer exists. For the 2016–2017 academic year, the total cost of attendance at UC Davis — tuition, fees, books, room and board, personal expenses, transportation — came to $32,675. Add health insurance and you're at $35,003. For a single year. That's not a college education anymore. That's a mortgage payment with a diploma at the end.
Watch: "Ivory Tower" (2014) — The Documentary That Asks If College Is Still Worth It
Ivory Tower is a 2014 documentary directed by Andrew Rossi, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. It examines whether the American university, in its current financial form, still delivers on its promise — and whether the cost has simply become indefensible.
💡 Did You Know?
Filipino Americans have one of the highest college graduation rates of any ethnic group in the United States — over 47% of Filipino Americans aged 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to the national average of around 33%. Education is not just valued in Filipino culture — it is considered a sacred obligation to the family and to those who sacrificed to come here.
🇵🇭 Tagalog Word of the Day
Karunungan (kah-roo-NOO-ngan)
Meaning: Knowledge, wisdom, learning.
Rooted in the word dunong (skill/knowledge), karunungan goes beyond book learning — it encompasses the wisdom passed down through generations. When a Filipino parent pushes their child toward education, they are passing on karunungan as a form of love.
A Tenfold Increase in a Single Generation
Let's do the math plainly. From 1985 to 2016, the cost of attending UC Davis increased roughly ten times over. Median household income did not increase tenfold. Wages did not increase tenfold. The minimum wage did not increase tenfold. Only the cost of college did — outpacing inflation, outpacing housing, outpacing healthcare.
The Ivory Tower documentary makes a critical point: college tuition has increased more than any other service in the United States economy over the past four decades. Not healthcare. Not housing. College.
— Glenn Pingol, PinoyBuilt contributor
Why This Hits Filipino-American Families Differently
For Filipino immigrants, education was always the plan. Not a plan — the plan. My parents didn't bring me to America for the weather or the television. They came so I could go to school. So I could have opportunities they couldn't access in the Philippines. That is the fundamental Filipino-American contract: sacrifice now so the next generation has options.
That contract is being broken by an economic system that treats a college degree as a luxury commodity rather than a public good. Filipino-American families — often middle-class, often dual-income nurses and government workers — frequently earn too much to qualify for maximum financial aid, but nowhere near enough to absorb $35,000 a year without crushing debt.
📌 By the Numbers: UC Davis Cost of Attendance
1985: ~$3,500/year (tuition + room + board)
2016–17: $32,675 (California resident, on campus) | $35,003 with health insurance
Increase: ~10x over 31 years
US inflation (1985–2016): ~134% | College costs: ~1,000%+
The "Ivory Tower" Problem — And What It Means Going Forward
The term "ivory tower" originates in the Biblical Song of Solomon and was later used to describe an environment of intellectual pursuit disconnected from practical everyday life. That metaphor has never been more literal. American universities have, in many cases, become financially disconnected from the families they were built to serve.
The documentary explores alternatives — community colleges, vocational programs, online courses, apprenticeships — and asks whether the four-year residential university model is sustainable at all. For Filipino-American families navigating this landscape, those are not just philosophical questions. They are urgent, practical decisions made around kitchen tables every year.
The question is no longer just "can my child get in?" It's "can my family survive getting them out?"
The Stakes Are Personal — and They're Ours
For anyone who grew up in a Filipino immigrant household, the script was the same: study hard, go to college, build something your parents couldn't. That wasn't pressure — it was love, expressed in the only language a sacrificing family knows. The idea that this path is now financially out of reach for ordinary Fil-Am families is not an abstraction. It's a crisis unfolding at kitchen tables across Vallejo, Daly City, and every community where our parents planted roots and told us to grow.
The Filipino value of utang na loob — a debt of gratitude so deep it becomes obligation — means Filipino parents will sacrifice everything for their children's education. The system knows this. And it has priced accordingly.
Sources
💡 Filipino Americans & Higher Education in the Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area is home to one of the largest Filipino-American populations in the United States — over 250,000 in the greater Bay Area, with significant concentrations in Daly City, Vallejo, Fairfield, and Concord. UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and Cal State East Bay are among the most common destinations for Fil-Am students from the region. The financial burden of these institutions falls disproportionately on immigrant and first-generation households — the very families who came to America specifically for this opportunity.
Updated article. 1985 vs 2026. What a change!
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