NEW YORK - The average American saved 5,011 US dollars last year, which means it would take them about 75 years to save up enough cash to send one child to a top-rated US university -- college is really expensive, and it just keeps getting more expensive, reported CNN on Sunday.

The average tuition at US private colleges grew by about 4 percent last year to just under 40,000 dollars per year, according to data collected by US News & World Report. For a public in-state school, that cost was 10,500 dollars, and that's an annual increase of 0.8 percent for in-state students and about 1 percent for out-of-state.

"But at highly rated or selective schools, the price tag increases substantially," said the report. "Harvard University charges 57,246 dollars in tuition and fees, per year, for undergraduate students. When you add in housing, food, books and other cost of living expenses, Harvard says you should expect to pay about 95,438 dollars each year."

It wasn't always this way. After adjusting for currency inflation, college tuition has increased 747.8 percent since 1963, the Education Data Initiative found.

Between 1980 and 2020, the average price of tuition, fees, room and board for an undergraduate degree increased by 169 percent, according to a report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. "That far outpaces wage increases," noted the report.