Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[joyapple]

Dear friends,
I would be much grateful if anyone could help me with the following questions.
1)This fall's probable average 8% increase at public universities, added onto double-digit hikes in the two previous years, means tuition at a typical state university is up 36% over 2002.
(What does " double-digit hikes " mean here?)
2)Government subsidies and private gifts given to support affordable undergraduate instruction are often spent elsewhere.
(What does "affordable undergraduate instruction" mean here?)
3)Mid-six-digit salaries are becoming commonplace for superstar faculty, coaches and university presidents.
(What does "Mid-six-digit" mean here?)

[CP]

1. The numbers 0-9 are single-digit numbers, as it takes only a single digit to write one. Ten through 99 are double-digit numbers. With this fall's probable average at 8%, and at least 10% hikes / increases in tuition for last year and the year before, tuition will be 36% higher than it was in 2002.

2. Tuition pays for schooling, in this case, for undergraduate instruction (four years of college, as contrasted with graduate school, where advanced degrees are earned). We know (from part 1) that tuition is getting very expensive, so it is not affordable / inexpensive enough for many people without government subsidies and private gifts.

3. Six-digit salaries require six digits to write them out: between 100,000 and 999,999 dollars. Mid-six-digit salaries would be somewhere near $500,000 -- perhaps $400,000 to $600,000 or so.

With about 2.6 people per household, the median family income in the U.S. was $43,318 in 2003. So a mid-six-digit salary is a good 10 times the median family income.
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