The College Board has some good news and some bad news.

First, the bad news: College costs more than ever.

The good news? Most students are actually paying less for their education.

The total charges — room, board and other fees as well as tuition — of attending a four-year private college or university such as Marquette has increased 5.7 percent since last year, said Jennifer Topiel, spokeswoman for the College Board, a national non-profit organization that provides assorted services and programs for colleges and college students. The total charges of attending a four-year public college increased 9.8 percent over the past year, Topiel said.

Topiel said there are many reasons why tuitions are rising.

“There are so many different factors (that influence college tuition), it’s hard to pinpoint just one,” Topiel said. She did, however, list the constant competition between colleges and universities to attract and retain upper-echelon faculty and students as one major factor of tuition increase. In order to do so, colleges and universities must provide the best facilities — computer workshops, libraries, etc. — which is a very costly endeavor.

Despite the tuition increases, a study performed by the College Board found that students pay significantly less than the published tuition and fees.

A record $105 billion in financial aid is available to college students from a variety of sources, Topiel said. Adjusted for inflation, the figure is a 12 percent increase over the amount of financial aid available last year. Topiel said that approximately 45 percent of this financial aid comes from federal loans (such as the Stafford Loan), about 20 percent from institutional grants from colleges and universities, nearly 11 percent from Pell Grants and an estimated 5 percent comes from state grants. The remaining 19 percent comes from other sources such as educational tax credits.

But because of the rising costs of higher education, this record amount of funding doesn’t necessarily make paying for Marquette tuition any easier.

“If students compare their aid packages, there are not significant increases as a result of allocations made by Congress,” said Dan Goyette, Marquette’s director of financial aid. “On a per student basis, there aren’t any increases.”

Marquette charges undergraduate students $10,175 per term, or $20,350 per year to attend every program, except for the Physical Therapy doctoral phase in the College of Health Sciences and the Dentistry program, which is more expensive. Room rates vary with occupancy and the hall. Marquette students must also pay a $127 Student Health Service fee, a $24 Student Activity Fee and $36 for a Upass.

Tony Pals, Director for Public Information for The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, an organization to which Marquette belongs, said the annual average tuition charged to students at four-year private colleges and universities to be $19,710.

Another factor that determines how much students pay to attend their college or university is the performance of that school’s endowment.

“Most (endowments) are in stock or bond funds and what’s happening in the market affects those endowments,” Topiel said. The poor performance of many stock and bond funds has negatively impacted college and university endowments. This means that colleges and universities must look to other sources to make up for the lost revenue. At times, that includes raising tuition.

“When economic times are bad, schools have to increase their funding efforts,” Topiel said.

The American Association for State Colleges and Universities, an organization representing more than 430 public colleges and universities, said the 9.8 percent increase in cost of attendance is due to three primary factors: loss of state funding, significant enrollment growth and increased institutional costs on such as technology and employee benefit packages.