Merit money is extremely limited at Purdue, especially for out of state and international students that are paying double to attend. IMO, that is a form of subsidy. Many public universities do that to help off set costs.
1 Like
Random thoughts on this in no particular order:
- This is an interesting question.
- Not everyone SHOULD go to college.
- Parents do not owe their kids a college education.
- Attend community college part time while working if you have to. Then transfer. There are lots of various ways to bring college costs down…
- Take advantage of the Modern States’ “Freshman Year For Free” program with their online courses…they’ll provide you with a free test fee voucher to use when you take the CLEP exam for each course. Gives you course credit at thousands of colleges and universities.
- Work 20 hr/week at Starbucks and attend college online for free (employee benefit).
- Do a wider search of colleges than you’re used to. If you have the grades to qualify for merit scholarships, be willing to move to a place for 2-4 yr that you might not have considered before. Why? Because maybe you have a high enough GPA to qualify for a boatload of auto-merit scholarship money.
- Enlist in the US military, then use your GI Bill benefits to attend for free/super cheap.
- Qualify for an ROTC college scholarship.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
3 Likes
I’ve deleted several posts that didn’t comply with ToS or which responded to those posts. Such posts are subject to deletion without notice or comment
Yes, merit money may be limited and it is definitely a discount to attract top students, including those from OOS. But again, Purdue does not meet full financial need, so the instate poor really have to struggle and balance multiple jobs just to buy books while the state taxpayers give a discount to OOS full pay students. Yes, plenty of other Unis do the same, but then they don’t make hay of holding tuition level for a decade.
1 Like
Interesting this describes how St. Andrews in Scotland is run. Students eat at the dining hall associated with their dorm only. Eating hours are set. It’s not all you can eat. There are fewer student services such as tutoring or special accommodations. No student health center. Students sign up with a local doctor. Athletics are clubs (society), no scholarships or preferential admissions and all students that want to use the athletic center pay a fee. I’m sure this is similar to many schools outside the US. It can be done.
1 Like
Why provide a less desirable product? Parents and students want all those expensive items for their children.
Then why all the complaining about cost? Those desired/necessary amenities, services and accommodations cost money to provide. Can’t stay at the Four Seasons for the price of a Holiday Inn.
5 Likes
I never complained about the costs. Private schools are expensive. Many in state public schools aren’t expensive.
This thread is about bringing down the cost of college. I simply pointed out there are ways to reduce the cost of tuition. People may not want to implement them but they are available.
6 Likes
Sure. Schools can refuse to provide counseling, with the expectation that the students should have health care coverage for that. They can stop making any updates to buildings on campus. They can cut back housekeeping services, maybe even tell students that they can figure out how to organize a bathroom and hallway cleaning schedule - oh, and they need to make sure all trash from their dorms, classrooms and student gathering areas get out to the dumpsters regularly. They can stop taking care of lawns and stop shoveling walkways. It’s easy to provide nothing. It’s a lot harder to figure out what is necessary & to find ways to provide those things.
1 Like
That seems to be the question: what is necessary vs. desirable.
All my kids were required to have health insurance or they would have had to pay for the college provided health insurance.
The other items you listed are not what’s raising tuition. Groundskeepers, maintenance and janitorial staff salaries aren’t the issue.
My D cleaned her own bathroom in Scotland and there were monthly room inspections. The students were expected to keep the communal kitchen, shared by the 5 students in the dorm “flat”, clean as well.
What parents/student’s view as necessities at college is at odds with what parents/students want to pay. They hold up other countries’ colleges/universities as models because they’re cheaper or “free” but most of them would not accept the conditions that go along with the cheaper or free universities as they exist abroad.
6 Likes
Of course, in the UK and other universal health insurance countries, health insurance for students and employees is less likely to be considered something that the college needs to do anything about.
1 Like
My D studied abroad in Scotland. Her student housing was not a dorm, and there was no meal service. There are absolutely schools in the U.S. that do not require students to live in a dorm or have a meal plan.
3 Likes
US colleges require students to have health insurance. Atleast all my children’s schools did. You provide evidence they have insurance or you buy it from the school.
In the UK there is no student health center. You go to a local doctor. Try doing that in the US.
1 Like
True but most require atleast freshman to do so. Some require all 4 years on campus. And parents then complain that off campus housing is expensive and their kids have to find time to shop and cook for themselves. Never a dearth of complaints.
2 Likes
They are presumably concerned that some students may not otherwise have health insurance – a concern in the US that is much less likely to be a concern in the UK where every domestic student is assumed to have NHS coverage.
Many US college students go to local physicians. Given the limited services of many college student health centers, they are best seen as merely a convenience for minor issues in most cases; larger issues often require using local physicians in the community.
That would be most colleges in the US. Consider all of the colleges that have mostly local commuter students. Many colleges (particularly community colleges) do not even have dorms.
1 Like
But those most likely are not the schools charging $80,000+ for tuition, room&board which seem to be the subject of this thread.
1 Like
A student wanting a low cost no-frills college in the US does not need to choose an $80k college with all of the frills. Most have the option of an in-state public with $5-15k tuition and few or no other required costs (e.g. dorm and meal plan are optional).
Of course, if you want some luxury items like prestige, you may find that they are often packaged with other luxury items at high list prices.
4 Likes
Couldn’t agree more. But the original query about bringing down costs referred to colleges other than community or state schools.
That leaves private colleges and universities.
1 Like
Is it necessary to bring down costs for everyone at those colleges? I guess that’s a bigger question. There are certainly less expensive alternatives.