@alwaysamom, depends on whether you are talking about in-state or OOS, Canadian vs. non-Canadian.
I see McGill and Toronto as equivalent to good American state schools like UW-Madison and UT-Austin. Publically-funded research powerhouses but with giant classes and student bodies and more sink-or-swim.
And the BS tuition rate at McGill for non-Canadians is about the same as the UW-Madison OOS tuition rate.
Music majors have typically paid more because private lessons, which are required, are often paid separately.
Engineering is more expensive than other majors at Texas A&M. I’m sure it costs more to education students in lab based majors like engineering and science, but on the other hand, I believe the companies that recruit those students also make big donations to the university, and the STEM graduates may end up donating more down the road. So…I think they should charge LESS for those majors (my totally unbiased opinion based on my STEM degree and my house full of STEM major kids).
Looks that way. It will be interesting to see if the legislature agrees. Can’t really complain though. NCSU is somewhat of a bargain in the world of college tuition.
Many schools require students to have majors by junior year, and give declared majors priority in course registration, so if a school charges by major, it may be difficult to wait until the last semester before graduation before declaring the expensive major. Expensive majors appear to be popular ones which may be difficult to enter and whose courses are completely full with students in the majors.
It is possible to save some money by transferring into the program later on, however, you are also taking the risk of not being able to transfer into that program/school (e.g. engineering). However, the maximum you can save is probably the difference for a couple semesters. Also, you may have a lower priority in class registration for certain classes. It is kind of like going to a CC and then transfer to a 4-year university. You can potentially save a lot of money but there is no guarantee to have the outcome your want.
@PurpleTitan , my comment was in reference to the cost for Canadian/QC citizens/ residents.
While it’s true that there are some first year courses that are large lecture courses, this is not the case in every major, at least at U of T, and certainly, upper year classes are often small.
@alwaysamom, that’s as or even more true for giant American state schools (almost all of whom have lower student-faculty ratios than UToronto and the other big Canadian unis).
BTW, clarifying who you are speaking in reference to is always helpful on CC, where most posters aren’t from Canada. After all, if I said “UW-Madison is far cheaper than majoring in anything at any Canadian uni” that would be a tad misleading without a qualifier when that really is only the case for residents of WI and MN.
At my daughter’s school, tuition is ~$2000 more per year for engineering, science, and business majors. Since 80% of the school majors in those three areas, I think it is kind of stupid. Most of the rest are communications and psychology majors, most of those are athletes, and would go to the school even if they had to pay the higher tuition (i.e., I don’t think they are attracted to the school by the $2000 savings).
U of Illinois has a significant upcharge for engineering. I supposed that this was because of the desirability of that set of programs, which are world class, rather than the high cost of operating them. But now I’m questioning that assumption…who knows?
@Hanna, UIUC charges in-state kids about $5K more a year for engineering, business, and sciences. That’s not nothing, but $5K is also the difference in tuition between Columbia and Harvard, yet I never hear people bring that up.
At least UIUC fixed the tuition rate for your 4 year enrollment. At UMich, not only CoE has higher rate for freshmen, the increase in tuition for upperclassmen is also much higher than LSA. That is on top of the annual increase in tuition.
Because the state (ie taxpayers) shelled out all the money for the buildings and infrastructure. Current operating funds are a small portion of what the true expense is for an individual kid to go to that school.
“$5K is also the difference in tuition between Columbia and Harvard, yet I never hear people bring that up.”
True, but the need-based aid differential means that people to whom $5k is a lot of money actually pay it at UIUC, and they don’t at C & H.
I think it makes more sense to charge differential tuition by the course, not by the major. For example, at my school the tuition per credit hour was about $50 higher for business classes, which meant that if you were health care administration (a major which required some lower level classes in the business school) you would end up paying the differential tuition for those classes even though your major was otherwise unaffected. I mean, if the logic is that certain classes cost more to hold (a logic that I think makes sense) it doesn’t make sense to say that only majors taking the classes should bear the cost of it.
@purpletitan, oh, for Pete’s sake. My comments were likely clear to anyone who was following the discussion and saw the responses to the quoted posts in my comment.
Never heard of this upcharge before. Dang. One more thing to think about in my kid’s college search. Thanks for the heads up, OP.
@alwaysmom, no they weren’t clear at all. I certainly was speaking of Canadian unis more from an American perspective than from a Canadian perspective. Most people on CC would be as well.
Variable costs for different majors could have another unpleasant consequence: Some students in some majors may have an inferior complex, just like students who go to a perceived “less prestigious” school may do. This could affect the quality of the campus life in a negative way.
This actually reminds me of an intern at my previous company many years ago who was a student from a certain college (which is better left unnamed here.) He said that since the students at his college are, relatively speaking, more serious about dating for marriage only rather than for fun, almost no female student would be interested in dating those male students with a major which unlikely leads to a promising career.
It makes sense to me that there are many undoubtedly unprofitable majors that colleges need to keep going. Especially in the Humanities. Students, prospective students, and alumni like knowing those programs at there, even if they are not participating. Most top schools are going to have Classic Latin, and Ancient Greek, for example. You also can’t just cut the English department because it is not directly profitable. Lol