1961

We recently were looking at some enrollment literature for the Class of 1979 that casually mentioned a year at the College is now running the average student $5,900. This means that today's parents putting a son or daughter through Dartmouth have to shell out roughly $24,000 for the four year program. If our memory is reasonably accurate, our class was able to do it for around $10,000 a man. A glance at the compound interest tables shows that the price of a Dartmouth education has been inflating at the rate of 7% a year during the 13 years we have been out in the cold, cruel world.

Let's say you have a son who is ten. If the cost of a Dartmouth degree keeps inflating between now and the time he is ready for college at 18 at the same seven percent rate since you graduated, it will cost you $41,000 to see him get that sheepskin. In other words, an Ivy League education for our sons and daughters will run about four to five times what we had to spend. How's that for inflation!

A classmate who so far isn't worrying about educating children, because he's unmarried, is Hilton Graham. He currently is serving as second economic officer in the American Embassy at Lisbon, Portugal. Prior to joining the State Department in 1969, he did graduate work at Columbia University, was an officer in the U.S. Navy, and spent a year and a half traveling in Europe.

Before going to Lisbon, Hilton studied for a year at the Foreign Service Institute in Washington, D.C., where he concentrated in economics and the Portugese language. He has said that because the Portugese government is in a state of flux his assignment there may be particularly interesting and challenging.

Secretary, 14 Glen Road Winchester, Mass. 01890

Treasurer, R.R. 2 Windsor, Vt. 05089