THE $10,000-A-YEAR COLLEGE EDUCATION HAS ARRIVED - NYTimes.com

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THE $10,000-A-YEAR COLLEGE EDUCATION HAS ARRIVED

By LAURIE JOHNSTON

Published: February 19, 1981

Correction Appended

The price of a college education, which hard-pressed parents have long said is going through the roof, has done just that - only there is apparently no longer a roof. As Gertrude Stein said, ''When you get there, there is no there there.''

For 1981-82 undergraduates, tuition charges alone are crashing through the $7,000 barrier for the first time. Total fees, including room and board, are not only shooting past $10,000, but also emerging strong on the other side at such pace-setting schools as Harvard, Yale, Brown, Bennington, Columbia, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford.

At several campuses, they carry such canny price tags as Princeton's $9,994. Outstripping the inflation rate by several points, the increases will commonly be 15 percent and often more. A benchmark 20 percent rise has been announced by Boston's Northeastern University for four of its colleges, where freshmen will pay $4,500 tuition, with a 16.7 percent rise to $4,200 at the other colleges. Cornell's endowed colleges will go up 18 percent to $7,000 tuition, with housing and dining increases expected to bring the total to $9,864. Student Aid a Concern

The increases come at a time of severe concern over the Reagan Administration's announced goal of limiting Federal financial aid to students, and many schools are increasing their own budgets for student aid. ''I have never been so beside myself about financial aid, both at Barnard and across the country,'' said Suzanne Guard, the Barnard director of financial aid.

At Amherst College, which expects a 13 to 15 percent increase above the present $8,450 comprehensive fee (compared with $3,600 ten years ago), 70 percent of the students have federally guaranteed student loans. The college has budgeted its own financial help for 35 percent of next year's freshmen, as against 27 percent this year.

''If there's no major reduction in Government loans and grants, we're in good shape,'' said Donald Routh, dean for financial aid. ''If there are reductions, then we have some very realproblems.''

Around the country, campus press editorials and a scattering of demonstrations have protested the proposed rises in tuition and other fees. While some officials and students talk about ''pricing ourselves out of the market'' or ''getting beyond what the traffic will bear,'' for the most part they report a mood of near resignation to what is considered inevitable. Some Students Protest

At Fordham University, which has announced 13 and 14 percent increases in tuition, a demonstration was held recently on the Bronx campus, where total fees will go from $3,750 to $4,240. Seven students carried signs and chanted in the cold for 15 minutes before jamming their signs in the door of the administration building and dispersing.

Students at New York University were described as ''complaining'' about increases of 14 percent for tuition, to $5,770, and 12 percent for living costs, but they were said to be more immediately concerned about possible cuts in Federal aid. Housing at N.Y.U. will go to $1,430 and the maximum meal plan charge to $1,384.

Putting the blame on inflation, college officials cite soaring costs of fuel and insulation programs, food and equipment, as well as relatively modest faculty and staff salary increases of 9 to 13 percent. Administrators note in passing that income from endowments and other sources is not keeping pace with inflation.

Announcing that Yale's undergraduate bill would be $10,340, President A. Bartlett Giamatti called it ''as low as it can possibly be'' in the face of energy costs, a decline in the purchasing power of endowments and Yale's decision to increase salaries.

Columbia and Barnard, which expect to announce increases of at least 12 percent, to about $10,300 and $8,840, respectively, are among the schools citing a need for improved security to justify the rises. State University Fees Up

Tuition increases of at least 11 percent at the State University of New York - to $1,000 or $1,050 for undergraduates on 29 four-year campuses, compared with $550 a decade ago - were tentatively approved this month in an attempt to save most of the 440 faculty and nonfaculty positions believed lost in Governor Carey's proposed 1981-82 budget. The trustees also raised next year's dormitory fees by $150 a year, to $1,100.

The breaching of both $1,000 levels, while psychologically dramatic in the state-supported system, still leaves the state university's 10-year increase slightly below the now typical 100 percent rate.

Although the City University of New York is also heavily dependent on the state budget, it plans to remain at the $900 mark, reached four years after its schools began charging for tuition in 1976. ''We have absolutely no intention of increasing the tuition for next year,'' said James P. Murphy, chairman of the board of trustees.

Total fees on nearly all campuses have at least doubled in the past decade - a period when the national consumer price index was rising 112 percent - and most picked up speed in the later years. At Brown University, for example, next year's $10,242 comprehensive fee is up 110 percent from $4,890 in 1970-71 and 78 percent from $5,750 in 1975.

Princeton will break its own records with a 15 percent increase in tuition to $7,250. The total charges come to $9,994 -a 133 percent increase in the last decade. However, students and their families are urged to count also on an allowance of $1,055 (up from this year's $975 estimate) for such expenses as books and laundry -not to mention the beer-and-skittles part of education - bringing the recognized total to $11,049. Bennington at High End

With a mere 12.3 percent rise in total fees, Bennington College in Vermont may still present the nation's most expensive undergraduate bill: $10,560 for tuition, room and board. At Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., a planned 15 percent increase will bring student fees to $9,780, of which $6,850 is for tuition.

Like many other schools, Harvard University cited ''steady inflation and rising energy costs'' for its $1,370 increase in undergraduate charges to $10,540, with tuition alone up 15.5 percent to $6,930. Henry Rosovsky, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, said an 80 percent rise in the price of steam for heat and hot water had contributed to Harvard's current annual energy bill of $27 million, up 25 percent in a year.

Like other schools, too, Harvard maintains that ''families will still allocate about the same percentage of income in real dollars'' because college charges have only paralleled the inflation in the nation's disposable personal income.

Many students and parents, however, note that money intended for college does not always come out of current income. When Deborah Levinger, a Brandeis University freshman from Sioux City, Iowa., started planning and saving for college five years ago, for example, she thought the money earmarked would last her through graduate school, with ''maybe a little left over.''

''But now, by the time I get to grad school, I won't have any money at all,'' said Miss Levinger, whose 1981-82 tuition, board and room will be $9,824, compared with this year's $8,574. ''The cost is outrageous, but what can I do? Other schools I've looked at are in about the same range.''

Illustrations: photo of students on Yale campus photo of Suzanne Guard and Mel O'Connor at Barnard table comparing tuition at ten colleges

Correction: February 27, 1981, Friday, Late City Final Edition A chart in Metropolitan Report last Thursday comparing college costs included an incorrect figure for Fordham University. The total annual cost for tuition, room and board will be $6,800 starting in September.