As Graham Eger and other seniors throughout the country are committing to their college choices, they must also begin to face high-priced college tuition.

Over the past few decades, prices for college have skyrocketed. According to Bloomberg, college tuition has increased by over 1,200% in the past 36 years. This is far higher than other inflation rates — just under twice the rate of medical inflation and over four times that of the consumer price index.

One of the causes of this annual price jump is spending on improving facilities.

“It seems colleges are spending a lot of money on infrastructure, meaning buildings and equipment,” counselor Brian White said. “And while that’s always important, sometimes a balance has to be made.”

Some schools are able to pay for these projects by using endowments. Endowments are basically investment funds, and some can be extremely large. Harvard University’s endowment, the largest in the country, is $36.4 billion dollars.

“Some people feel that these gigantic endowments that many schools have, should be spent on tuition, but not all schools have them,” White said.

Another reason for high tuition is the amount schools spend on athletes. Schools, most typically the SEC, Big 12 and PAC 10 schools, spend far more on their athletes than they do for their academic students. According to www.insidehighered.com, the median athletic spending per athlete in the FBS in 2012 was almost seven times higher than that spent on academic students.

With so much being spent on athletes, people are left wondering what schools care more about, athletics or academics.

However, the sticker price schools say they charge is rarely paid. Usually, students will be able to qualify for financial aid or some type of scholarship. Eger was able to earn a full ride to the University of Alabama.

White said that as times have changed, so have expectations as to how students will pay for college.

“When I was a kid, parents were expected to cover about one quarter of the cost (of college), and the government would help cover the other three-quarters. Now that’s flipped,” White said.

These higher prices have impacted both students and their parents. According to USA Today the U.S. student loan debt has reached $1.2 trillion dollars.

“The increasing cost to students has impacted them in that they are graduating, in many cases, with much higher loans,” White said. “Their parents are going out on a … financial limb, and borrowing or spending money that may be more than they ever anticipated to send the child to school.”