"As freshmen walk onto Syracuse University’s campus next semester, experts say they’ll start their college careers at one of the most expensive schools in the United States.
SU now joins Ivy League schools, including Brown University or Yale University, with an expected total cost of attendance of more than $70,000. While most students won’t pay that full price because they receive federal financial aid or merit scholarships, experts say SU has to be careful with tuition hikes beyond this threshold.
‘That’s a lot of money,’ said Donald Heller, a tuition expert and provost of the University of San Francisco.
In interviews with The Daily Orange, higher education experts said a $3,300 tuition premium that will be tacked onto SU’s new undergraduate costs next year is a major component of why costs are crossing the $70,000 mark. The premium is part of a $100 million fundraising initiative called Invest Syracuse." …
That’s why we’re backing down on Syracuse. This craziness will only end when families step back and say no more. Families buy into the hype and set their kids (or themselves) up for major debt for years to come. No school is worth 70,000/year–Ivy league or otherwise. If Syracuse had gone up tracking inflation, its COA would be tens of thousands less. And I’m not singling Syracuse out–they’re all crazy like this. Syracuse was my daughter’s reach–not a traditional academic reach, but a financial reach. We expected her to get in, but if it wasn’t affordable (by our standards, not hers), she wouldn’t be going. She has been accepted, but she won’t be attending.
@mistreshijas …my daughter got a bit of money and it’s still too much…and I don’t get why. I guess supply and demand? We can’t make BU work either, same reason. It’s absurd what they are charging.
@twinmom71 My daughter is not a high achiever–she’s bright but not a super hard worker in school. She wanted to apply to BU as well and we told her to pick one school that we probably wouldn’t be paying for and let that be the reach. She chose Syracuse. Our twins will be coming through in a few years, and we will strategize in a completely different way with them. They are bright and super hard workers–involved in activities that are meaningful to them and very mature. We will be aiming for “meets 100% of need” schools for them, and if they stay on track, they should get in to one. Either way, our plan has been to mostly dodge the private schools in the middle that don’t give much money, as well as never pay more than a small premium over our in-state flagship. Our oldest is happy with her final choice, but in the end, we led her down this path anyway!
@mistreshijas is 100% correct. You can end up making the same amount of money in life from going to a community college than an Ivy League school. In today’s world, companies want to hire people with an education and most importantly communication and outside-the-box thinking skills. I know it’s tempting to go to these big shiny universities, but it isn’t worth going unless you can pay for it without loans. College is becoming more and more necessary in this world, but that doesn’t mean it has to be at a university.
@CuseMan44 and others. I think it is true that “you can end up making the same amount of money in life from going to CC or an Ivy league.” My parents both went to inexpensive state schools and had wonderful careers, one as a florist and the other as an aerospace engineer. Of their 4 kids, two went to Harvard, one to Vanderbilt, and one to CC. All are successful in their fields. I do think it took the kid who went to CC longer to get into the leadership track in his field. Further, his classmates generally have not achieved what he has achieved. So, in my opinion, it first comes down to the kid and their work ethic and, second, I do believe there are early career advantages to the brand names that quickly fade as one gets established in a particular company or career.
Regardless, I am very excited that my son will be attending Syracuse!!! And, thanks to a very reasonable aid offer, it is not the most expensive of the admission/aid offers we received. In fact, there were three other schools that would have cost more. GO ORANGE!!!
@CuseMan44 I was one of five. Four of us went to private schools—BC, Franklin and Marshall, etc., all paid for by my parents back in the day. One of my siblings ended up at our state flagship (he got into Syracuse, but was rejected from their business school). He makes the most of any of us by far, and has a pretty nonstressful job in real estate investment. It’s not where you go but what you do with it…
@mistreshijas Sorry I just realized I put Thanks? instead of Thanks!, and it won’t let me edit it now. Sorry about that. Did not mean to come off rude.
I am a Syracuse alum and I will state categorically that $70,000 is not worth it, even for the Newhouse school. Shame on SU for raising tuition to this level.
I have to laugh, ruefully. I was accepted to Syracuse for the class of 1980 and couldn’t go because, even then, it was too expensive for me.
My friend knows someone whose D is at Syracuse. We ran into her once and she was telling us that there is a special service there, for extra money, where kids drop their laundry and someone does it for them. This woman told us, laughing, that her parents pay for that service for her D so she can have more time to study. And here I thought part of going away to college was learning to deal with laundry and cleaning, etc. while balancing classes and maybe a job.
Yet all these schools in the top 75ish have no trouble filling their seats. The market keeps charging what it will bear and there are enough rich people who think it’s worth it
I am an alum and I have done this interesting math:
My older sister started at Syracuse in the early 1980s. By the time I graduated, ten years after she started, the tuition had DOUBLED: from $10,000 a year to $20,000 a year. If it was just keeping pace with inflation, it should have only been about $14,000 at that time.
Inflation is not the reason. Tuition rates just went up like crazy.
I also did the math on what the equivalent of that $10k would be in 2018: about $25,000 a year.
Instead, it’s about $45,000 a year (tuition only). This increase is similar to many other private universities.
Why is it $20,000 more than the inflation rate? We could argue various reasons, but in my opinion it’s because money for college became TOO readily available, so colleges could just keep increasing their rates because the students were still coming up with the money.
I think a lot of it is because the college product has become much more extravagant than just a good education and an acceptable place to live - what it was 30 years ago. Lavish dorms, Athletic facilities, dining options and student centers - never mind study abroad opportunities - are not cheap.
This surprises me about Syracuse though. Just a few years ago they seemed to be noticeably less expensive than the other private ACC schools. Higher tuition costs do drive perceptions of elite-ness though.
We went to an open house at Syracuse this past July. Believe me, the dorm that we were shown definitely was not lavish. SU is my son’s top pick but I was not impressed with the dorm. I agree with everyone that SU is not worth 70,000 a year.
That’s almost three times more than in-state full freight at a good SUNY school. Does anyone think that you will be three times more likely to get hired for a job because your resume says Syracuse instead of Buffalo or Binghamton?