NY Times is reporting on the trend toward colleges admitting more students who can pay full freight. Here are some excerpts:
- “If you are a student of means or ability, or both, there has never been a better year,” said Robert A. Sevier, an enrollment consultant to colleges.
- "The trend does not mean colleges are cutting their financial aid budgets. In fact, most have increased those budgets this year, protecting that money even as they cut administrative salaries or require faculty members to take furloughs. But with more students applying for aid, and with those who need aid often needing more, institutions say they have to be mindful of how many scholarship students they can afford.
- “There’s going to be a cascading of talented lower-income kids down the social hierarchy of American higher education, and some cascading up of affluent kids,” said Morton Owen Schapiro, the president of Williams College and an economist who studies higher education.
“We’re only human,” said Steven Syverson, the dean of admissions and financial aid at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. “They shine a little brighter.” The advantage is not across the board; it goes to the students at the margins, the ones who would probably be “maybes” when the admissions committee considered applications. Those students are less likely to get in if they are financially needy and more likely to get in if they can afford to pay."
- "Some families have come back and tried to renegotiate aid after an offer of admission, but colleges caution that there is no guarantee: they have accommodated some requests, but told other students that their offers are firm, and in some cases, released students from early decision agreements rather than give a larger scholarship."
- “It’s not unusual to see families earning $200,000 applying for aid, especially if they have a couple of kids going to college,” said Rodney M. Oto, director of student financial services at Carleton College.
Here is a sampling of the comments to this story:
- "My daughter is looking for a college now. She applied at seven excellent private colleges and the University of Colorado. She has been accepted at six so far. Unfortunately, none will be affordable without significant financial aid which in this economy may not materialize. To make matters worse, I lost my job last week. It's very difficult to tell a child who has done everything right and worked so hard that she must lower her expectations. I also have to wonder about the fate of a country that gives so little support to young people who want to educate themselves, or buries them under a mountain of debt before they get their first job."
- "In 1980, when I started college, the median income was around $17,000 and my private university tuition was $3200, or less than 20% of median income. Now median income is around $48,000 and my alma mater charges $37,000, or 77%. What's wrong with this picture? Is it any wonder no one can pay?"
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