The writer suggests we talk about the actual price, the one before colleges subsidize students.
As a parent who doesn’t qualify for need-based FA, the tuition price applies to me.
There is a large segment of parents where tuition is the cost driver (they can afford the room and board but not tuition). I also found room and board varied much less than tuition. That of course doesn’t count the UMass block with their other fee which doesn’t slot anywhere.
Post 1: Did you read the article at all?
It argues that schools should publish the “true cost” of college and then determine how much it is willing to subsidize per student. No one pays the full cost- EVERYONE is subsidized.
You’ve started several threads about this now. Is there some point you’re trying to make?
Yes I read the article. And I think it’s totally irrelevant to the buyer what the “true cost” of college is with respect to subsidies from endowment given to all students.
When I make a decision on a car purchase, do you think I care whether the car dealer provides a sticker price breakdown of the unit cost of steel, labor costs, federal income tax deductions, and state tax subsidies for locating the manufacturing plant in State X?
If my budget for a car purchase is 30k, I’m not going to buy a 60k car because it’s got subsidies.
This shows why most Americans think that elite, Ivory Tower universities are so out of touch. Why would we care about the actual cost to deliver a service from a private firm? Contrary to showing how great they are , it reinforces that they are horribly inefficient and cannot deliver a service at a price people can afford. Without massive endowments they would have long ago disappeared.
Virtually nothing that is not a commodity is priced near its cost of production. College tuition is an extreme example of price discrimination.
@poblob14 I think you have me confused with someone else.
@primemeridian that’s an interesting example, of a car sticker price. With cars hardly anyone ?) pays that amount. But it does suggest a value, which is what colleges are doing with a published tuition price, in part.
Heh, yeah. This is why we no longer elect graduates of the Ivies. Oh, wait.
And why Ivy application #s are going down!
I think the Op-Ed makes a ton of sense. The gist of the argument:
Responses:
No, but if you’re comparing $30,000 cars it might be worthwhile to know if you’re getting a car with a sticker price of $30,000 or a deeply discounted one with an original sticker price of $60,000. IOW, if you can get a BMW for the cost of a Ford Fiesta, isn’t that something you’d want to know? Both cars will get you where you want to go and you truly may not need the BMW’s heated seats or Bose sound system, but there may be some value to getting that reliable German engineering. You might even be willing to pay an extra $5,000 for the BMW’s better warranty.
The consumer often doesn’t know what goes into the cost of an education, but how much is being spent on each student can affect the quality of education students experience. People tend to notice nice dorms and good food, but things like student support, full-time faculty, and funding for student research can be quite expensive and can make a difference in how long a student takes to graduate and their job prospects after graduation.
Some of the most expensive schools have the highest graduation rates. Some of that’s because they accept well prepared students, but another factor is the support students receive, both institutional support and financial. Amherst College enrolls a significantly higher percentage of minority students and close to the same percentage of Pell grant recipients but has 4 and 6 year graduation rates much higher than U Mass Amherst, the state flagship in the same town. Families often look at the sticker price and assume a school like UMass will be cheaper, but the school only covers an average of 80% of determined need and much of that FA is in the form of loans. Amherst covers 100% of determined need. Even more significant is this statistic:
UMass:
Number of students in line a who applied for need- based financial aid 4,128
Number of students in line b who were determined to have financial need 2,735
Number of students in line c who were awarded any financial aid 2,672
65% of students who apply for FA receive it at a rate of 80% of need
Amherst:
Number of students in line a who applied for need-based financial aid 322
Number of students in line b who were determined to have financial need 259
Number of students in line c who were awarded any financial aid 259
80% of students who apply for FA receive it at a rate of 100% of need.
@marvin100
An Ivy alma mater is hardly a prerequisite for elected presidents.
Bill Clinton graduated from Georgetown. Jimmy Carter went to Georgia Tech, then transferred to the US Naval Academy. Ronald Reagan graduated from Eureka College. Barrack Obama started at Occidental, then transferred to Columbia. LBJ graduated from Texas State University. Gerald Ford from UMich. Nixon graduated from Whittier.
Bill and Hillary Clinton went to Yale Law. Obama, Columbia. Nixon, Duke Law (not an Ivy, but equivalent for sure). Even Trump is boasting about his Wharton days, @PrimeMeridian . And while you’re right about the others–and that an Ivy degree isn’t a “prerequisite”–Ivy grads are certainly still batting way above their average in the halls of power and influence. The Supreme Court is even more Ivy-dominant…
This thread is a discussion about UNDERGRAD tuition.
Professional school tuition (law, medicine, MBA) is a whole different kettle of fish. There’s very little discounting for professional school.
Sure, just correcting the mischaracterization of the influence of the Ivies. Carry on.
Do you seriously believe that if a Ford Fiesta and a BMW were being offered side-by-side at the same sales price, that the consumer needs to see an itemized breakdown of the manufacturing costs, to make an obvious decision?
For the record, Gerald Ford was also a Yale Law School grad and Barack Obama has a Harvard law degree as well an an undergrad degree from Columbia.
Only because people are aware of the difference, in particular because the sticker prices and the available features for these cars are published.
If the net price of Princeton and Podunk U cost the same, and the admitted student picks Podunk U, then then the admitted student was arguably too dumb to go to Princeton.
@Sue22, except that what a uni spends on students will likely differ by major as well as other factors.
Small classes at an honors college aren’t going to have the same per-student cost as large lecture classes. Equipment in engineering labs is far more expensive than a few history books. Top b-schools bring in much more money than philosophy departments and lavish them everywhere. Adjuncts are cheap, and which classes are taught by adjuncts will differ by department and class.
There are cross-subsidies everywhere.