cost increases
The first thing you need to keep in mind is the increase in the cost of living and the decline in the value of money. In 1935, when my parents graduated from high school, my father went to work for $14 per week and that wasn't bad money for a single man. You could raise a family on $25 per week if you were frugal. A pair of Florsheim shoes cost $7.50; a good suit was $25.00; a new Chevrolet was $650; a small row house was $2000 to $4000.

As late as 1957, when I started college, $50 a week was not a bad salary and you could certainly live on it. In my first 2 years, I paid $600 per semester tuition; room and meals was another $300, books came to about $50 (a book costing $10 was high priced). By the time I graduated, in 1961, it had gone up about $100 per year. Now, the tuition at Johns Hopkins is, I believe, about $22,000 per year for an undergraduate.