Like Ivies, Berkeley Adds Aid to Draw Middle-Class Students

Parents Forum
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<p>"The University of California, Berkeley, announced Wednesday that it would offer far more financial aid to middle-class students starting next fall, with families earning up to $140,000 a year expected to contribute no more than 15 percent of their annual income, in what experts described as the most significant such move by a public institution. </p>

<p>At Berkeley, officials said, the number of low-income and wealthy students has grown over the last several years, while the number from middle-class families has remained flat. That has raised concerns that some of the state’s best and brightest are choosing private schools whose generous financial aid can erase differentials in sticker price or not enrolling at all. The cost of a year at Berkeley has risen sharply to $32,000.</p>

<p>Berkeley’s definition of middle-class in creating its new financial aid program is a family with income between $80,000 and $140,000 a year. On top of the parental contribution of 15 percent of income, students would also have to pay about $8,000 per year — generally a combination of loans, work-study and private scholarships. At the bottom end of the spectrum, that would make for a total payment of $20,000, a 37.5 percent discount off the $32,000 total of tuition, room and board for California residents. On the upper end, it would be about $29,000, or a 10 percent discount.</p>

<p>(Out-of-state students, who make up 30 percent of Berkeley’s freshman class this year, will get comparable discounts on the first $32,000 of tuition and fees, but still have to pay an additional $23,000.) </p>

<p>Berkeley officials said the program was expected to cost $12 million a year and would be paid for from out-of-state and international student tuition, as well as private donations. Officials said they had recently received an $8 million donation for financial aid and expect to raise more.</p>

<p>Fewer than 2,000 students from families with incomes over $80,000 received financial aid this year, officials said. They estimated that under the new policy, an additional 4,000 middle-class students would receive grants ranging from $3,600 to $16,000 next year. Officials said that the program was devised so that they could increase aid — most likely reducing the 15 percent contribution — if they raised more money, but acknowledged that they could also end up changing in the other direction if money fell short.
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/education/berkeley-increasing-aid-to-middle-class-students.html?hp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/education/berkeley-increasing-aid-to-middle-class-students.html?hp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>$80,000 to $140,000 per year is about the 70th to 95th percentile household income, isn’t it?</p>

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<p>There are no parallels bewteen this proposal and the FA policies at the Ivies. Ultimately, Cal will have to revise its mission and replace transfer admissions with more gullible OOS or foreign applicants who can be convinced the school represents a decent deal at full cost. </p>

<p>A rudderless ship it is!</p>

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<p>Here’s one :slight_smile: My D applied there.</p>

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<p>^^^
Don’t worry Igloo, you probably don’t have to expend much energy searching this website to discover xiggi’s disdain for the Ca state flagship and in particular its transfer policies.</p>

<p>Is it worth full tuition? Who knows, I guess that depends on what you want, what your other choices are and how much money you have. But in the state of California, where I have worked for over 30 years (in defense, Silicon Valley, and now the energy sector), a Berkeley degree is still higly respected, probably more so now than it was when I went to school. Particularly in my field, EE, where it is infinitely more selective these days. (BTW, full disclosure - I didn’t go to Cal but another couple UC schools).</p>

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<p>A UC Berkeley degree is well-respected, internationally, and well worth the cost of attendance.</p>

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<p>I’m a big supporter of UC, but agree with xiggi: “a rudderless ship”. For example, </p>

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<p>If this trend has raised ‘concerns’, then the UC is truly run by the clueless. UC specifically reserves ~33% Pell Grantees in each class of each campus. (Good social policy.) Then, due to budgets, UC lops off hundreds of Frosh slots. Then UC re-opens those slots to wealthy OOS’ers. Since the ‘poor’ slots are fixed and other slots are provided to wealthy from other states, anyone could guess that the middle class will be squeezed out. (Indeed, I predicted that very same several years ago when UC adopted its Barnum & Bailey recruiting efforts.)</p>

<p>And UC finds this a ‘concern’? :rolleyes:</p>

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<p>Bovertine, the Romans used to say “Qui bene amat, bene castigat.” A more modern version might be “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” In so many words, you cannot recognize the good, if you refuse to see the negatives. There is plenty of good happening at Cal, an institution I have referred to as a world class university, and one of the top 5 for graduate studies. However, the real questions are about how such graduate programs translate to the undergraduate level and how the undergraduate offerings justify costs comparable to prestigious private universities that do no suffer from the impact of extensive and prolonged cost cutting measures. </p>

<p>While expressing reservations about those issues might be considered “disdain,” pretending they are not relevant or do not exist is equally questionable. </p>

<p>Regarding my disdain for transfer admissions, this only becomes relevant in (silly) discussions about rankings that are based on freshman admissions. Comparisons with schools that have lower or zero transfers are not valid in the context of a statistical analyses of the student body. </p>

<p>And this brings us to the mission and direction of Cal. In simple words, what does it want to be or still can be? Should it be a state school that focuses on its state taxpayers despite the dwindling local support? Should it be a school that competes on the regional market for the best students? Or should it be a school that rivals with the best national and international universities for BOTH the graduate and undergraduate students. </p>

<p>Right now, Cal is neither fish nor fowl. If it wants to be compared to the most prestigious schools, it has to adopt a truly competitive national admission process, and abandon its local mission. Or it can decide to remain the best public university in the country and hope for continuing public support.</p>

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<p>I know the money is not coming from CA taxpayers, nevertheless seeing this the same week that all bussing has been cut for CA students, threatening magnet programs and special ed students, is irksome. I suppose it’s not rational, no one needs to tell me that, but something about it bugs me.</p>

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<p>As if many privates have not had to tighten their belts–some more than others but all household names.</p>

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<p>“Berkeley has eight main types of funds. The largest amount comes from the State of California in the form of a general-fund allocation and makes up a little more than a quarter of our operation. Tuition and fees from our students and research support from the federal and local governments each make up about a fifth.”</p>

<p>[Overview</a> of funding sources - UC Berkeley Budget Primer](<a href=“http://berkeley.edu/news/budget/primer/sources.shtml]Overview”>Budget | Berkeley News)</p>

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<p>^^ that budget pie chart is from 2008-2009. A LOT has changed since then.</p>

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<p>Is this Cal’s attempt to separate itself from UCLA in ranking? </p>

<p><a href=“Out-of-state%20students,%20who%20make%20up%2030%20percent%20of%20Berkeley’s%20freshman%20class%20this%20year,%20will%20get%20comparable%20discounts%20on%20the%20first%20$32,000%20of%20tuition%20and%20fees,%20but%20still%20have%20to%20pay%20an%20additional%20$23,000.”>I</a> *</p>

<p>Berkeley’s definition of middle-class in creating its new financial aid program is a family with income between $80,000 and $140,000 a year. On top of the parental contribution of 15 percent of income, students would also have to pay about $8,000 per year — generally a combination of loans, work-study and private scholarships.</p>

<p>So, a family who makes $120k will pay $18k for the $15% plus $8k…which is $26k. </p>

<p>In-state tuition and fees: $12,835<br>
Room and board:… $14,990 </p>

<h2>Books and supplies:… $1,202</h2>

<p>Basic costs…about $29k
COA…about $32k</p>

<p>I’m guessing that they also are assuming a family situation with modest assets with this proposal. </p>

<p>Are they considering the number of kids in college??? If not, this is as flawed as Blue and Gold. </p>

<p>I’m guessing that they won’t consider int’l students as OOS?</p>

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<p>Yes, it was big news when tuition income >>state funding. Michigan and UVa have been there for a decade and have it working for them.</p>

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<p>^^ however, Michigan and UVs have MUCH smaller populations of instate college age students. Far fewer qualified instate students were rejected in order to make room for OOS students. Calif has more qualified HS students than the UC has openings. Many are now losing out on the ability to go to a UC U because so many slots are now saved for OOS [ full pay] students.</p>

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<p>^^
Any idea how low the percentage is for students who are NOT admitted to a UC school? Hint … It is below forty percent. Waaaaaaaay below. Is it expected that the UC admits every applicant?</p>

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<p>I’m glad xiggi has learned how to criticize Berkeley in a less demoralizing way. </p>

<p>OnT: Good move for Berkeley. Congrats! </p>

<p>However, the real issue of Cal isn’t the high tuition cost, but the quality of education one may get from it. There is no question that Cal is prestigious and employers like to recruit talents there. The question lies on how happy and convenient the student will be once enrolled at Cal. If there’s one biggest thing that Cal needs to improve on, it’s definitely its overpopulated issue. If Cal could lower the transfer admits from 2,000 a year to say, 250 a year, that would make a whole lot of difference. The middle-class students don’t want to seat in a 250-seat auditorium full of 500 students!</p>

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<p>The stats for instate kids at UCB, UCLA, UM and UVa are in the same ballpark. Lower UCs are lower to much lower so it seems there is a balance no matter how many students in total. Mich and Va have limited top schools too tomatch lower populations</p>

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<p>Not quite, xiggi. UC aims to admit every eligible applicant. Indeed, that is why UC built a campus in Merced (in a Field of Dreams). UC will chase wealthy OOS’ers for its top two campuses, while pushing those formerly-accepted middle-classers down a campus notch or two, which creates a trickle-down effect, filing Merced.</p>

<p>“Access” is the key focus on UC administrators.</p>

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<p>A well endowed school can afford to maintain excess unused capacity that allows for every class to be small, every class to have space available, and students to have free choice of declaring or changing major without competing for limited spots in the major. But such schools are likely to be an exception overall; most schools have budget pressures that require them to operate at as close to full capacity as possible.</p>

<p>Why the dislike for transfer students?</p>