Things to Read: The Economic Recession’s Effect on Tuition
By Kay Steiger - Dec 19th, 2008 at 6:30 pmOver at Campus Progress, Pedro de la Torre III has an excellent rundown of how and why the economic recession is going to hit students harder than it will institutions:
Take a $20,000 scholarship—the full tuition for a needy student at some schools. Break it into four scholarships of $5,000 each for wealthier students who would probably go elsewhere without the discounts but will pay the outstanding tuition if they can be lured to your school. Over four years the school will reap an extra $240,000, which can be used to buy more rich students—or gifted students who will improve the school’s profile and thus its desirability and revenue.
In other words, wealthy students tend to receive larger student aid packages on average from their schools than low income students do. Additionally, many colleges will be under more pressure to drop “need-blind” policies, where schools do not consider financial need as part of the admission process,, and “full-need” policies, where schools guarantee that all students will have their financial needs met. Both tend to benefit low-income students. Tufts University, for example, told the New York Times that they may no longer be able to afford to be need-blind policies.
This comes at a time when competition for admission and financial aid is high. Both the number of students applying for financial aid and the average amount of documented financial need is increasing. This means that low and middle income students, who usually do not have the benefit of SAT prep course, tutors, private schools, and other advantages, will have a harder time getting admitted this year. Utimately admitted students will be competing with many others for a slice of the same student aid pie.
Go ahead and read the whole thing here.
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