College Tuition

[Frodo]

In Tuition Game, Popularity Rises With Price

By JONATHAN D. GLATER and ALAN FINDER
Published: December 12, 2006

COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. — John Strassburger, the president of Ursinus College, a small liberal arts institution here in the eastern Pennsylvania countryside, vividly remembers the day that the chairman of the board of trustees told him the college was losing applicants because of its tuition.

It was too low.

So early in 2000 the board voted to raise tuition and fees 17.6 percent, to $23,460 (and to include a laptop for every incoming student to help soften the blow). Then it waited to see what would happen.

Ursinus received nearly 200 more applications than the year before. Within four years the size of the freshman class had risen 35 percent, to 454 students. Applicants had apparently concluded that if the college cost more, it must be better.

“It’s bizarre and it’s embarrassing, but it’s probably true,” Dr. Strassburger said.

Ursinus also did something more: it raised student aid by nearly 20 percent, to just under $12.9 million, meaning that a majority of its students paid less than half price.

Ursinus is not unique. With the race for rankings and choice students shaping college pricing, the University of Notre Dame, Bryn Mawr College, Rice University, the University of Richmond and Hendrix College, in Conway, Ark., are just a few that have sharply increased tuition to match colleges they consider their rivals, while also providing more financial assistance.

The recognition that families associate price with quality, and that a tuition rise, accompanied by discounts, can lure more applicants and revenue, has helped produce an economy in academe something like that in the health care system, with prices rising faster than inflation but with many consumers paying less than full price.

Average tuition at private, nonprofit four-year colleges — the price leaders — rose 81 percent from 1993 to 2004 , more than double the inflation rate, according to the College Board, while campus-based financial aid rose 135 percent.

The average cost of tuition, fees, room and board at those colleges is now $30,367. Many charge much more; at George Washington University, the sum is more than $49,000.

[Gabu]

This has got to be the goofiest thing I've ever heard, and yet it also makes sense at the same time.

For me, the answer is no; I like my cheap university just the way it is, thanks.

[Frodo]

This is probably the single biggest reason why there is virtually no likelihood of any return to the heavily subsidised higher education system we had during the Sixties.  While a college student at the University of Washington, I talked to someone who attended the same college at around the time of the famous campus unrests against the Vietnam War, and he said that he (or rather his parents) paid only a couple hundred dollars in tuition costs.  Even if adjusted for inflation, it is still unbelievably low. 

[Colin]

Not really but there it does seem as if the top colleges all have high tuitions, in the area around $40,000 a year, and then the prices do decrease as rankings go down.

[Sibboleth]

Not really but there it does seem as if the top colleges all have high tuitions, in the area around $40,000 a year, and then the prices do decrease as rankings go down.

Come again?

[Colin]

Not really but there it does seem as if the top colleges all have high tuitions, in the area around $40,000 a year, and then the prices do decrease as rankings go down.

Come again?

For tuition, plus room and board, and books. All told at most of the top 30 colleges in America the average is about $40,000. At Amherst, which is the most expensive in America IIRC, it's $45,000 a year.

[Nation]

Not really but there it does seem as if the top colleges all have high tuitions, in the area around $40,000 a year, and then the prices do decrease as rankings go down.

Come again?

For tuition, plus room and board, and books. All told at most of the top 30 colleges in America the average is about $40,000. At Amherst, which is the most expensive in America IIRC, it's $45,000 a year.

Indeed.  My friend who attends there, was lucky enough to receive a huge scholarship (her family doesn't make that much money) and has to pay less than $10,000 a year.

Most of the students attending the extremely rich schools -- are, well, rich.  Or at least their parents are.

[Nation]

And tuition DID determine where I went to college. I was accepted into some fairy reputable private schools (Drexel, Suffolk) but unfortunatley,  I was looking at God knows how many years of student loan payments since both schools were around $25-30k a year.

SUNY Buffalo only costs me about $5k a year.

[bullmoose88]

Not really but there it does seem as if the top colleges all have high tuitions, in the area around $40,000 a year, and then the prices do decrease as rankings go down.

Come again?

He's right...my undergrad was roughly 35k/year.

The thing is, Al, is with the Federal and State governments being so generous with loans and aid is that schools (coupled with rising costs, salaries, healthplans, etc) can generously raise tuition (even when they have huge endowments) because they generally figure the ones really on the borderline of ability to pay can get aid from the government/private sources.


Essentially it boils down to the fact that as long as educational loans and grants exist, the schools are gonna shift the cost to the student, who will borrow now and pay it back later.

I think loans and grants are a great thing (certainly helped me with the margin I, rather momma and papa bullmoose in the short term) couldn't pay, but they allow the schools (especially the private liberal arts schools) to go nuts.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I have a rather dim view of colleges geared towards dumb rich kids with massive grade inflation. Meanwhile, there isn't enough financial aid at the public schools that have smart poor kids.

[bullmoose88]

I have a rather dim view of colleges geared towards dumb rich kids with massive grade inflation. Meanwhile, there isn't enough financial aid at the public schools that have smart poor kids.

I would have figured that someone with your education could come up with a better generalization than that.

[nini2287]

W&M out-of-state costs are pretty high (roughly $30K a year).  I may have to graduate early/take a semester off to avoid massive loans.

[MODU]

No, but then again I've been to three different colleges.

[Jake]

Tuition doesn't affect my opinion of the school's academics. However, most state universities, at least in Pennsylvania, are fairly large schools, with large class sizes or academic programs rated lower than the other schools I'm looking at. Considering I don't want large class sizes, I could cross Pitt and Penn State off my list very earlier.