Chapter 8.4, Problem 36E

Tuition Costs Average annual tuition and fees for private four-year colleges are shown in the table.

High School Graduates
Year	Percent
1950	34.3
1960	41.1
1970	52.3
1980	66.5
1990	77.6
2000	84.1
2005	85.2
Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Let $x=0$ represent 1996. $x=2$ represent 1998, and so on, and let f(x) represent the cost in dollars.

(a) Use the information for the years 1996 and 2008 to find a linear function f that models the data.

(b) Use the function from part (a) to estimate the cost in 2007. Compare the estimate to the actual 2007 cost of $21,979.