Agreed. But Eau Claire might not face the same kind of talent exodus that could happen in Madison, either.
Wisconsin Madison has multiple endowments. Theses include the UW Foundation amount above. Approximately $3 Billion with WARF, $400 Million held by UW System Admin for Madison, and another smaller accounts. Total approx $ 6 Billion. I believe UW also carries much less debt than UM or UVa.
No this has nothing to do with UWEC future.
Well, we toured UWEC’s campus yesterday - rather, D and her Dad toured and attended the info session, while I walked around campus and Water Street in Eau Claire with our dog. (We also drove around downtown EC after the tour.)
My impressions, based on spending a couple of hours there, and 2nd-hand feedback on the info session and tour:
- If I knew nothing at all about the budget cuts, I'd say this was a financially healthy school - just based on the new buildings, landscaping, and construction alone. The campus seems to have more than adequate resources, re: classroom spaces and infrastructure. Campus is well-maintained and pleasant.
- D reported back that the tour guide said only freshmen are guaranteed housing, and upper classmen are sometimes placed in a hotel downtown. Interesting.
- At the info session, it was said that one of the biggest freshmen classes to ever enroll was expected this fall - which will also help create a housing shortage. At least, they were honest about this.
- Textbooks are apparently included in the price of tuition. I'm still wondering if they heard this right... but they both swear that's what they were told... It costs extra to use the campus gym, though (although each dorm has an exercise room). Textbooks are probably more important than the gym membership to most students so... (Also, I'd think the required hill walking from classrooms to dorms would work off some of the cafeteria food. Also, bicycling seems big here, bike paths and bike racks everywhere...)
In short, D liked the campus enough (she loved the town of Eau Claire, too), and what she heard at the info session. One of my husband’s clients also has a daughter at UWEC currently, and says she loves it there. H liked what he heard and saw.
Our initial impression is that D should be able to get a decent education here. H liked that they said they encourage internships.
D has two other schools she likes equally, in two different states… We’ll see.
Thanks, everyone, for your insights (even about Madison, although yes, D is only interested in UWEC.) Hopefully, the budget cuts won’t affect the quality of the UW system too drastically.
Yes, the textbook thing is correct and has been the policy at several UW’s for many years. I went to UWSP and still remember my tuition was $335/sem and included books. They’ll even give you a dictionary and a few other general books if you want. I’m not sure about the gym membership - maybe they meant there was an extra student fee to use it (and that fee was mandatory?)? It would be different if they had an a la carte pricing for student facilities, but maybe they are trying to keep the costs down fees ? Both my kids are at schools where everything is included in their student fees- sports, concerts, movies, rec center, museums on campus.
It’s not unusual for colleges to only have housing for freshman. Upper classmen often want to live off campus in apartments or co-ops or Greek housing. It’s usually cheaper (especially the meal plan).
I’m actually not concerned about the gym fee - or too much about the housing. My D is.
What she doesn’t know is that she will want an apartment in her junior year, anyway!
And, again, there are fitness rooms with equipment in each dorm, and those are included in housing. She won’t need the rec center gym. And yes, there is an extra fee of $80 per year to use the rec center.
As for the textbook thing, that’s a nice feature.
Trivia question, I am just curious. When was the last time the U.S. had a president that did not have a college degree?
^ Harry Truman (President 1945-1963) didn’t have a college degree, although he did attend a Kansas City commercial college for one semester and later took night classes toward a law degree, but never finished.
As I mentioned my daughter will be a senior at UWEC this fall. She signed up for her dorm room from last year in February and got it. There could be a change in policy but in the past upper class students were guaranteed housing if they sign up by the deadline, in February as I recall. I’m not aware of a policy change. In the past it has been freshman who have been put in nearby motels near upper campus, not downtown, with shuttles. Frequently they are moved to a dorm 2nd semester. If she decides to attend, I would just make sure to get the housing deposit in as early as possible.
As for the textbooks, generally the main textbook can be rented for free. Supplementary texts need to be purchased. Generally if a book costs more than $50-$60 it can be rented though my daughter has had a few exceptions to that. My son, a CS/math double major probably only spent $300 or so over his 4 years on books. But he essentially had all his social science/humanities GE requirements satisfied by AP scores when he entered. English, history, education and other majors with a lot of supplemental books will need to spend more. My daughter will be spending about $300 for books this fall as upper division classes often don’t have a main textbook.
Apparently, there has been a policy change with housing, in that upper classmen will now be housed in the hotels and freshmen will be guaranteed housing. D and H said it was mentioned that it was the other way before.
I’m personally not too worried about it, as I will make sure she has the forms in early, wherever she goes! 
Yeah, I think this becomes a problem mainly for those who wait until the last minute.
Just to add to bclinton’s comments about UVa - UVa did not increase their percentage of out of state students. The undergrad population has been 65 to 70% in-state for at least the last 35 years. To head off pressure from the Legislature to reduce the number of OOS, UVa agreed to increase their total enrollment in phases of both in-state and OOS, while keeping the same ratio. UVa could do that because they were smaller in enrollment than most other flagships. The high OOS tuition has been critical to continue to fund financial aid and to make up for state budget cuts. There have been huge increases in international students, who are not eligible for UVa’s financial aid.
Fortunately, UVa has extremely loyal alums who make huge contributions each year. The OOS on average tend to be larger donors, because some in-state alum feel they are already funding the U. with their taxes.
UVa’s Law and Grad Business programs are in financial “silos.” That means they do not receive state funds. They run their own finances, except they are assessed a percentage each year to fund common services provided by the U. (such as grounds maintenance).
UVa’s Board was given much more flexibility in running its own affairs and setting its own tuition rates, without control by the State. Some undergrad programs charge up to $5K more a year in tuition than other programs, for both in-state and OOS. The Va. Governor selects all of UVa’s Boardmembers, unlike some flagships where they have different processes of appointment or election.
Only a few public universities (Michigan, UVa, UC-Berkeley, etc.) can demand such premiums for domestic OOS students. Lets use UIUC as an example. They badly wanted to increase OOS (domestic) enrollment, but had to fall back on international students. There simply wasn’t the demand from domestic students to pay the OOS tuition premium, even at UIUC.
I think too many administrators (and faculty) think the easy answer is increasing domestic OOS enrollment, but the only option for most is increasing the number of international students.
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2015/07/us/culture-clash-american-story/
Looking at state of origin for last year’s UW-Madison freshman class…
Wisconsin 3749
Minnesota 756
Illinois 599
International 350
New York 127
California 127
New Jersey 63
Maryland 47
…
UW-Madison is already 60% in-state, 40% OOS (domestic and international). If the UW system wants to increase the number of full pay OOS students, they likely would also need to depend on international students.
My son is considering UWEC and I am wondering if anyone has an update on the effecst of the budget cuts that are mentioned in this thread?
My son and wife visited the campus in December - one of the coldest days of the year - and loved the campus and the town. We live in Illinois and tuition, out of state, is competitive with schools in this state. I would love to hear from a parent of an actual student or recent graduate regarding their child’s experience at UWEC.
Hi, MSMDAD,
My daughter ended up not even applying to UWEC as they didn’t have a major she was interested in, and she’s now at another university.
However, my neighbor’s daughter transferred there as a sophomore this past fall and loved it. Unfortunately, her daughter ended up getting very ill and had to withdraw in the middle of the semester so only spent a few weeks there. . She was supposed to have returned this month, though. If I see my neighbor, I’ll ask her what she or her daughter think overall, of it so far.
We’re also in IL.