<p>This article may be too general for any particular parent/student. But it's still interesting, if for no other reason that the assertion that significant price increases for public universities are likely unavoidable for the next few years.</p>
<p>Tuition</a> at public colleges and universities skyrockets - Feb. 24, 2010</p>
<p>I definitely think that the economy has made the good quality state schools more competitive. I got information from IU this morning that they are again raising their admissions standards. But anyone who thinks that this economy and the price of the most expensive colleges and universities is not making it more of a challenge to recruit
the “paying” student is just wrong. I did note recently that these schools were relying more on internation students to fill their seats. We live in a very affluent area and from both the families with kids in private HSs AND the top kids from our public HSs, there is significantly less interest in the pricier schools and much more interest in the better publics where there is a lot more money for merit deserving kids of means.</p>
<p>Parents and students just have to keep looking to find out which schools have any merit aid available and compare the acceptance/aid packages.</p>
<p>My guess is that the schools that will first have trouble recruiting will be the mid to lower level private colleges with high sticker prices, especially in states with good public universities. </p>
<p>I live in New York, and it amazes me that some people are willing to pay full freight for some of the more mediocre private schools when our state system has good to very good schools for a great price. </p>
<p>My kid is still waiting to hear from a bunch of private schools in the northeast, but if they don’t offer a decent amount of merit money and/or fin aid we have a great safety school already in hand with SUNY Stony Brook. Even if we end up paying full price there, it’s still a good deal.</p>
<p>An admissions folk from an expensive private day school (middle through HS) informed me a couple of months ago that they were expecting to have trouble getting full pay students since the economy took a down turn. But, to their surprise, they are still able to fill seats with full pay kids. She did say the number of applicants has decreased, but the not substantially and the quality of applicants is still there.</p>
<p>One reason that a private day school may still be able to fill seats is that, as the economy gets worse and public school funding is cut, the differences between what a public school and a well-funded private school can offer become greater. As a result, some parents who have lost their jobs can no longer afford private school, but others who have been sending their children to public school because it is free decide they are no longer going to put up with their children not having a textbook, access to a guidance counselor or the chance to play school sports in middle school.</p>
<p>shokolade: I absolutely agree. If a private school has something special to offer then it makes sense for parents to spend the money if they can afford it to send their kid there. My younger child is in a private school for the gifted because even though we live in a good school district, they public school does not offer a comparable program. On the other hand, if the gifted school did not offer something special, there’s no way I would pay for her to go there.</p>
<p>As for mediocre private colleges (no names, you know who they are!) if their programs are the same as or worse than our state university system, I think it’s crazy to pay high COAs just for a name.</p>