Open disclosure about costs?

Parents Forum
1

<p>Should a college or university be more transparent about planned cost increases in tuition in future years? Should they be honest to families about their capital raising plans?</p>

<p>Or should they continue a form of bait and switch with families?</p>

<p>Going into Freshman year at a LAC in Oregon we looked at the cost of a four year education to attend the school. We were given reassurances that tuition costs would only have slight hiccups adjusting for expenses. </p>

<p>Well, a year later we are told of a scheduled tuition increase of 2k a year, in other words a 20k bump in the cost of a four year education. Should they have told us that prior to enrolling? It certainly would have made a difference in the decision making process, especially when a decision like that wasn't flip, it was planned. How honest should we expect schools to be? I really didn't expect the ole "let me talk to the manager" pitch from the local car dealer. </p>

<p>Witholding a material fact in my business can cause fines, revocations and possible jail time. Shouldn't a school own up and be upfront? I'm not talking about unexpected spikes or surcharges for energy costs or other variable costs in providing education. I'm talking about planned capital projects as it appears we are "giving" 20k for a new building in our tuition. </p>

<p>I can't name the school because I do fear repercussions as the internet and forums aren't necessarily risk free.</p>

2

<p>This seems to be universal; they probably consider 2k per year a hiccup. Unfortunately it is the parents' (or student's) hiccup...</p>

3

<p>How does 2 K per year add up to 20K over four years? Typo somewhere?</p>

4

<p>Oooh! Oooh! I know:</p>

<p>It's $2k more the first year, 4K the second, 6k the third, and 8k the forth.</p>

<p>2+4+6+8 = 20.</p>

5

<p>Wow! Nice math skills, but scary equation.</p>

6

<p>Most parents do need to realize that 5%+ percent tuition increases are to be expected and needs to be factored into the equation. Anything less is a bonus. It probably is less of an issue with need based aid students because their aid should increase with tuition increases in excess of their efc.</p>

<p>Our son received no need based aid so we paid the increases which totalled about $8k this year.</p>

<p>And shouldnt it be $12k, 2 soph yr + 4k jr yr + $6k sr yr? You should know freshman year costs prior to acceptance.</p>

7

<p>There are a few schools with 4 year fixed tuition amounts. Two that I know of are George Washington and the University of Kansas.</p>

8

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<p>That's what we figured and we weren't disappointed.</p>

9

<p>Excuse me here fellow parents, but weren't costs going up about 5% a year back when you were in college? They sure did at my undergraduate school in the mid '70s.</p>

10

<p>Barney, I am with you. I assumed a 6% increase when we recalculated out tuition payments since we pay monthly. We also were not disappointed. In fact the exact amount of the hike is revealed after students decide to enroll as freshman at my son's state school! The hiccup is revealed a couple of months later. </p>

<p>I think that the hiccup should not be disclosed by percentage, but rather in numbers like dad 'o' 2 spelled out so everyone is very clear as to just how much of a total hiccup this will be, and this really demonstrates how we get to the sticker prices that we have today. I have always said 5% of what! A 5% increase when a school was 20k is not the same as a 5% increase at a school that now costs 45k per year! That is a big difference in hiccups.</p>

11

<p>Happymomof1, exactly my point. 5% of 1000 is less than 5% of 50,000. This is why we have such sky high tuition costs today.</p>

12

<p>
[quote]
And shouldnt it be $12k, 2 soph yr + 4k jr yr + $6k sr yr? You should know freshman year costs prior to acceptance.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>DOH!</p>

<p>You're right, of course.<br>
Barney tricked me!</p>

13

<p>12 or 20 it still is the pits.. and at this point who's to say if they don't bump it up anyway some more. It's not like they can't or won't. This just was a shared vent. They'll continue until applicants drop off... I guess what the market will bear... </p>

<p>As I told my D last night, forget it about it for now... and forget about remembering to donate as an alumni later... Son's college was alot smarter about these things they didn't try and fund buildings off of current students backs.. get em through at a decent cost relating to their education and not construction...... and then hit em later for alumni funds. He's already thinking what a gift of 100k will provide that he can put his name on. </p>

<p>Short term and long term thinking from two different schools 25 miles apart. One's ....issing off the current students, the other making happy grads.. both will remember. Both schools will get what's coming to them.... ;)</p>

14

<p>At the public U my son attends, 08/09 COA will not be out until early summer, so parents really do not know going in.</p>

<p>We have had calls asking parents for some funds for ???, I don't know what, did not listen, it is too expensive for us know. I feel like we are paying enough!</p>

15

<p>Some colleges will guarantee your tuition will not increase at all in 4 years.... if you pay the whole thing up front. Um, yeah..... if I had the money to pay 4 years up front I think I'd have to worry about tuition increases in the future.</p>

16

<p>what schools have to be aware of in this modern era is making the current batch of students angry. Eventually the old old alumni that have fond memmories of old state u will die off, like the dinosaurs... eventually those folks will be gone. </p>

<p>What schools are going to be left with in the future is alumni still paying off school debt to a bank or credit institution, maybe begining to resent old state u for the constant upward bump of tuition. Maybe it will get harder to collect from Alumni in the future as we go from Alumni who valued the time back then onward to tomorrow to those who resent paying for school a decade plus after graduation. </p>

<p>Just an observation...</p>

17

<p>I thought about that, Barney, but they will be able to still hit up their wealthy donors. The rich will keep getting richer. It is the middle class and even upper middle class alumni that will be less inclined to donate until they have made their last student loan payment. By that time, they will have other priorities, like saving for the next generation's college education while having to support our social security/medicare system, if it still exists (I imagine that it will or our seniors will be on the streets carrying diseases)!</p>