Jamie Merisotis talked to President Barack Obama at the White House weeks before his State of the Union address.

The topic: college costs.

Merisotis, one of a dozen educators in the room that day, heads the Lumina Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit that wants 60 percent of the U.S. population to hold a college degree by 2025. The rate is currently below 40 percent.

Obama has a similar goal, pegged to 2020.

One of the problems blocking that effort? For about three decades, “we’ve seen tuition (increases) more than doubling the rate of inflation,” Merisotis said. “Now I think we’ve gotten to the point (where) the country has these significant goals, but we don’t have a lot of capacity to invest more money, and we don’t have the capacity to charge people the increasing rates.”

It’s a national challenge for Obama and, in some ways, a local one for Merisotis.

He’s a Bates College graduate and a Bates trustee. Next month, he’ll vote on whether that school ought to raise rates or stay firm at $55,300 a year. It’s already one of the most expensive in the country.

So, what’s a college to do?

The president has ideas, previewed during the State of the Union, including using federal student aid as an incentive to keep tuition down and creating a “College Scorecard” that compares, at a glance, cost, graduation rates and earnings potential.

Around central and western Maine, where college costs range from $5,000 to $55,000 a year, school leaders say they’re working diligently to keep college affordable. Including Bates.

Today, we look at the six colleges in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties and examine what they charge and how they’re minding their bottom lines.

Central Maine Community College

Full-time tuition and fees: $3,324 in-state/$5,900 out-of-state (some New England-area students qualify for a lower out-of-state rate)

Room and board: $8,176 to $8,916

Average financial aid package: $6,307

Student body: 2,913

Degrees: 22 associate degrees

Student-faculty ratio*: 18:1

Retention rate from first year to second, full-time students*: 71 percent

Graduation rate, within three years*: 25 percent

CMCC President Scott Knapp’s reaction to the federal call to keep college within reach:

“It’s about time you figured that out,” he said. “We cannot price people out of the higher-education market — that’s what’s happening in a lot of areas.”

Affordability may be a higher priority for the Maine Community College System than any other school, said Knapp, who has seen enrollment at his college more than triple in recent years.

“We see ourselves as the access institution in the state,” he said. “We realize, if a student can’t afford to come to one of Maine’s community colleges, you can’t afford to go any place.”

The system has frozen tuition and fees seven of the past 13 years, including last fall. Maine Community College System President John Fitzsimmons anticipates trustees will do the same this year. (Unlike the University of Maine System, in which trustees offer guidance but campuses set their own price, community college trustees set the same tuition for all campuses.)

Knapp expects to see a little more than 3,000 students on campus in the fall. Most are enrolled in degree programs.

“We’re running out of space, we’re running out of faculty, we’re running out of parking spaces,” Knapp said. “On the other hand, we realize, the reason our enrollment goes up is people need us.”

Growth has been key to being able to cap prices, Fitzsimmons said. More students bringing in more tuition pay for the operational costs going up around them.

Knapp said staff are always looking for ways to be more efficient.

“We have a director of athletics, housing and security,” Knapp said. “At most places, that would be at least three different jobs. We have a lot of people do multiple jobs in the institution.

“Our registars’ office is really about the same size it was 15 years ago when we had under 1,000 students,” he said. “That only was able to happen because of the technology we were able to infuse in there to get the job done without a lot of extra personnel. The fact is, I think we’re doing a job better than when we were under 1,000 students.”

* Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Full-time tuition and fees: About $18,400-$19,100

Room and board: About $2,000-$4,000

Average financial aid package: About $19,000

Student body: 155

Degrees: 3 associate degrees

Student-faculty ratio*: 8:1

Retention rate from first year to second, full-time students*: 67 percent

Graduation rate, within three years: 49 percent

Central Maine Medical Center College of Nursing and Health Professions is looking to keep tuition and fees flat for fall and to raise its profile locally.

Attracting more students is good for everyone, said Nancy Jo Ross, director of nursing programs.

Good for the industry, good for the sick, good for the school.

“In order for us to be more efficient and effective, we also need to work on increasing our enrollment,” she said.

The institution has been affiliated with CMMC for more than 100 years. It began granting associate degrees in 1977. Nursing is the largest major and offers a lot of distance learning.

“One of the things we really try to do with our program is extend outreach to rural areas,“ Ross said. “They do their clinicals in their own communities so they’re not having to travel to Lewiston or find arrangements to lodge here.”

That’s a cost savings in mileage and housing. She sees those opportunities increasing.

The college is in the midst of looking at what it has and offers with an eye toward productivity, Ross said. Faculty could be reassigned and new programs developed based on strengths and demand.

One change made two years ago: a new nights and weekends associate nursing degree.

“Our average student is 34 years old, most of them have families and they have to work (during the day),” Ross said.

Without advertising, 80 people applied for the 16 slots in the program. That first class graduated in December 2011. Every graduate found a job.

* Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Full-time tuition and fees: $42,800

Room and board: $12,500

Average financial aid package: $38,700

Size of student body: 2,000 (of those, 250 are usually studying abroad)

Degrees offered: 2 bachelor’s degrees (covers 35 majors)

Student-faculty ratio*: 10:1

Retention rate from first year to second, full-time students*: 92 percent

Graduation rate, within six years*: 88 percent

Nancy Cable doesn’t flinch. Bates College is expensive.

The interim president says the college is worth the price, and that students who need financial help get it.

At the same time, “There’s a lot of pressure on our costs not to go up,” said Cable, who is leading the school until Clayton Spencer’s arrival in July.

Last year, the Chronicle of Higher Education found Bates to be the 14th most expensive college in the country when all costs are considered. (Sites that list it in the top spot, such as the U.S. Department of Education’s college finder, are inaccurate because they base their rankings on tuition, which Bates does not typically separate from the total cost.)

Sixty percent of the college’s operating budget is spent on faculty, and another 28 percent on financial aid, Cable said. Half of all students receive some form of financial aid (grants, a campus job, loans) that covers up to 100 percent of the cost, based on need.

Bates wants a socio-economic mix in the classroom, she said. That’s part of the experience. It means to some degree, a student who pays full price is helping pay the way for another student who is less well-off.

“What you have then is a very robust learning environment that we believe is the best in the world,” she said.

The college doesn’t use teaching assistants or graduate students in the classroom. Small class sizes and having faculty available after hours pays off, she said: Better than 85 percent of Bates students finish their bachelor’s degree in four years. Nationally, 55 percent of students finish in five years.

A Bates education, she argues, saves the expense of an extra year somewhere else.

Since 2009, tuition, room, board and fees at the college have increased $2,000 a year. The average financial aid package went up $1,800 each time.

“We’ve been restraining the rate of increase for quite some time,” Cable said. “We have a moral responsibility to do everything we can to be affordable to qualified students.”

Bates put its course catalog online to streamline registration and keep staffing down. It has combined positions and uses bio-fuels to save money. There’s a turn-off-the-lights campaign and a please-take-only-what-you’re-really-going-to-eat effort in the dining commons that saved, in three months, at least $1,500 and 2,500 pounds of food waste.

The college is also reaching out. In November, Cable met with the heads of Central Maine Community College, the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College, Kaplan University, College for ME, Central Maine Medical Center’s nursing college and Lewiston and Auburn school superintendents.

Among the topics, Cable said, was: “How can we keep costs reasonable?”

That same group is due to meet, informally, again.

Jamie Merisotis, president of the Lumina Foundation, a Bates graduate from the Class of 1986 and a trustee for the past seven years, said he understands schools such as Bates, Bowdoin and Colby face pressure to explain the sticker price.

“I think it’s a legitimate question to say, ‘How much value are we adding and how do we make sure that we deliver high-quality learning at the lowest possible cost?'” he said.

For him, Merisotis said, Bates was worth it, personally and professionally. He pointed to skills such as critical thinking and writing.

“Bates, I think, added value for me that allowed me to have some options in life that I don’t think I would have had absent (that),” he said.

According to the college, 4,905 students applied for 500 spots this spring, just off last year’s record-breaking number of applications.

* Source: National Center for Education Statistics

University of Maine at Farmington

Full-time tuition and fees: $9,134 in-state/$18,225 out-of-state

Room and board: $8,168

Average financial aid package: $11,750

Student body: 2,213 undergraduates/56 graduates

Degrees: 3 bachelor’s degrees, 1 graduate degree (covers 30 majors)

Student-faculty ratio*: 14:1

Retention rate from first year to second, full-time students*: 76 percent

Graduation rate, within six years*: 58 percent

Three years ago, 40 percent of incoming University of Maine at Farmington freshmen were eligible for low-income federal grants. Last year, that figure bounced to 51 percent.

That’s one reason the institution watches its bottom line.

“It does mean, for financial aid, the big stuff, it means how many kids can afford us,” said Roberto Noya, vice president for enrollment management and marketing.

UMF had already been running strong but lean when University of Maine System Trustees decided to freeze in-state tuition this winter, Noya said. Four years ago it eliminated 10 full-time-equivalent positions. Plans were already under way to cut energy consumption. It buys services and equipment as part of a group when that’s possible.

“When they say you’ve got to be more efficient, it’s like, ‘Whoa.’ That hurts a place that’s been efficient,” Noya said. “But we’ve been through this before. We’ve been good at keeping the student success and the academic mission a priority and we’ll have to do it again.”

In February, the school created a new, merit-based transfer student scholarship, $1,000 a year, with an eye at affordability and attracting students from the community college system.

Noya is bothered by headlines that ask, “Is college worth it?” He said he’s read estimates ranging from $600,000 to $1.4 million as the earning difference, over a lifetime, between a high school graduate and someone holding a four-year degree.

“I think the real question is, ‘Can they afford to go right now?'” he said. “I’m hoping families are not so much wondering, ‘Is this worth it?’ but, ‘Can I pull this off?’ And that’s where we’re working busily.”

It’s too soon to know how many incoming freshman come from low-income households, but, of those already admitted, Noya said the figure is running ahead of last year.

* Source: National Center for Education Statistics

University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College

Full-time tuition and fees: $5,139 (reflects the average for this campus; most students don’t attend full time)

Average financial aid package: not available

Student body: 1,094

Degrees: 4 bachelor’s degrees, 2 graduate degrees

Student-faculty ratio*: 16:1

Retention rate from first year to second, full-time students*: 70 percent

Graduation rate, within six years*: 35 percent

Over the winter, the University of Maine System board of trustees voted to freeze tuition and fees for the coming year. It will soon take up lowering room and board, less of an issue here in Lewiston, which is a commuter-only campus.

“It’s part of a larger effort under way by the board to address college costs,” said University of Southern Maine spokesman Bob Caswell. “Cost certainly is one of the key areas of focus right now.”

Most students at Lewiston-Auburn, which is one of USM’s three campuses, take classes without formally declaring a major or enrolling full time. Students average about 9 credit hours per semester (15 is considered full time).

“I think it’s folks that are slowly building a degree,” said Dan Philbrick, LAC director of communications. “Life sometimes gets in the way. A job is first and foremost.”

Applications by students who have declared a major, however, are up for this coming fall.

Eighty-five percent of USM students receive some form of financial aid, which is also available to part-time students. Caswell said the university is offering a new scholarship to incoming freshmen, $1 million in awards of $2,000 to $13,000 a year, in addition to the $7 million it already gives in financial aid.

USM-wide, the three campuses have looked for energy savings, pared down non-academic offerings and trimmed staff, Caswell said. According to Philbrick, new, long-term contracts with the school’s electric and natural gas providers are set to save thousands.

“Clearly, (President Barack Obama) was trying to send a message to colleges and universities everywhere,” Caswell said. “It’s a classic case of the devil is in the details. How do you define affordable? Last I heard, that all remains to be seen.”

* Source: National Center for Education Statistics, based on all of USM

Full-time tuition and fees: $11,250 (doesn’t include fees; they vary by major)

Average financial aid: $4,979

Student body: 1,373

Degrees: 8 bachelor’s degrees, 6 associate degrees

Student-faculty ratio*: 17:1

Retention rate from first year to second, full-time students*: 41 percent

Graduation rate, within three years*: 22 percent

Enrollment at Kaplan University, the former Andover College, was up 10 percent this spring and officials say they expect to hold steady for fall.

The president of the for-profit institution, Christopher Quinn, said through a spokeswoman that Kaplan watches its costs by being all about the classroom.

“Because we don’t have the tremendous overhead to maintain rec centers, dormitories, cafeterias and other large campus facilities, we can direct more of our resources toward education and student support services,” he said.

Kaplan’s specialty, he said, is career-focused schooling for nontraditional students. The average student is 30, female and likely holding down a job in addition to going to school.

In January 2011, the university unveiled “Kaplan Commitment.” Under the new program, prospective students can attend classes for up to five weeks, at no cost, to see if the school is right for them. Spokeswoman Quenjana Adams said the campus has waived the $20 application fee, so for now students aren’t out that money if they withdraw.

* Source: National Center for Education Statistics, based on Kaplan’s Portland campus