Cost of College

[goldenvalley]

Several TRS folks have kids who are college students.  It's probably too late but I thought this was a worthy thread.  

As part of its sustained commitment to removing financial barriers for admitted undergraduate students, Washington University in St. Louis will adopt a “no-loan” financial aid policy beginning in fall 2024. Federal loans for undergraduate students will be removed from all financial aid packages and replaced with scholarships and university grants, ensuring that all admitted students can obtain a world-class WashU education without going in to debt.

“We are deeply committed to making a WashU education accessible for all talented students who earn admission,” Chancellor Andrew D. Martin said. “We have worked hard to make good on our promise to remove financial barriers for all admitted undergraduate students, regardless of their socioeconomic backgrounds. We want to get them here, support them during their time here, and prepare them to do great things. Now, when they graduate from WashU, they will do so debt-free.”

Going no-loan is the latest step in a long, comprehensive strategy to expand financial aid at the university. Other components include the WashU Pledge, which provides a full undergraduate education, including tuition, fees, housing and meals, to students in Missouri and southern Illinois with annual family incomes of $75,000 or less; and the university’s 2021 shift to need-blind admissions, a move made possible by the university’s $1 billion investment in its Gateway to Success initiative. The university has received national recognition for its efforts, including recently being named #1 in the nation for financial aid by the Princeton Review.

I'm proud of this because I went to this university for law school, not under-grad. This is perhaps a Midwestern Ivy...kids who didn't get into Ivies would consider this institution if they couldn't get into Chicago University. 

[indy]

Having gone through this recently, most private schools crow about how little debt their students graduate with but it may be misleading. Basically, you give them all your financial information including all assets and tax returns for the previous year and they determine the 'family contribution' each year. They then limit the amount of a loan that the student can take out in their own name. So if your family contribution is, for example, 35K this year (where the advertised cost is 75K) , they might say the student themselves can take out a loan of 2500 each year so they graduate with a debt load of only 10K but the overall cost of attending doesn't change because of it. It's just that the money has to come to them from some other source. The cost itself each year is entirely determined by family wealth. I am not saying it's the case here because I don't know but it's possible they are just saying the student will have zero debt when they graduate while the actual cost of attendance for them doesn't change at all.

Essentially it's sliding scale of cost vs. family wealth which I'm not saying I object to from a philosophical perspective, but the way they manipulate admissions after claiming to be 'needs blind' and market themselves as insuring students graduate with a small debt load is frankly annoying. In some weird way that doesn't fit with either the economic distribution or the intelligence distribution of the population, 50%-75% of Ivy league students (and nearly all the near ivies that I looked at) can afford to pay the full advertised price of 400k or so to the school they attend while graduating with under 15K in debt. That their 'needs blind' admissions policies worked out this way for them is just one big cosmic accident apparently.

And again, to be clear I'm aware of all the economic realities facing universities but the attempt to put a happy face on grim economic reality and the minuscule admission rates facing the non-privileged poor kids is really a disservice to any ability to correct course and, coincidentally, helps keep those applications flowing so they can claim acceptance rates of <10% and so that those rich parents don't mind 10% tuition boosts every year because obviously their kids are 'special' if they get accepted.

[andydp]

I need to tell a college $$ story:

First thing: My wife is an amazing budgeter.  She's still putting money away even though we're retired.  Which brings me to college costs.  Since about day one, my wife put money away in the kids' college fund.  Our daughter graduated from Northeastern with about $20K in loans.  Seems my wife was paying the tuition monthly from the college fund.  (Aside: it was cheaper than the Catholic HS tuition.)  One time, she tells me we'll be a bit "short" in the college tuition for the month.  She only mentioned it once so I thought she figured it out.  A month later I asked what she did to make up the "shortage".  She managed to "find" money.  When I asked about the college "funds" she said she didn't use them.  I reminded her it was a college fund for college tuition.  Its not like we were spending it on an 80" HDTV.

Our son also went to Northeastern but he found out Boston was a great party town so he paid $10K for a three month stay in the dorms. Not mentioning he gave up his ROTC Scholarship.  (I suspect he didn't want to get up early for PT - Physical Training) He ended up with an Associate Degree from the local Community College.  He told my wife he regrets his decision all the time.  In all honesty I saw him heading to college, and saw myself in 1967. I did the five year plan.

Anyway, because of my wife's efforts we did very well in that department.