"Just to give you a statistic ... the tuition and required fees in North Carolina's public colleges and universities are up over 100 percent in inflation-adjusted terms since 1970," explains Dr. Walden, a North Carolina Cooperative Extension specialist. "The good news is the state is still very affordable when you look at tuitions; we rank in the top 10 in terms of low tuition.

"And also the good news is even though we have had this increase in tuition, the state has been adding immensely to scholarship and loans," he adds. "And indeed those additions have helped keep the rising tuition still affordable for many students. In fact in the last 15 years, for example, the amount of money that the state of North Carolina has put into financial aid for students is up over 600 percent. And that's the sixth-fastest increase among all states.

"So the bottomline here is, yes, you want to monitor and look at tuition costs, but then you also want to look at it after you account for loans and scholarships and grants. And when you do that, the tuition situation looks much more affordable."