DP: You are phenomenally ill informed. Do you really think AOs at these schools are shunning large numbers of full-pay applicants from NYC? They are not. Schools outside of the T20 or perhaps the T50, along with *maybe* the T10 SLACs, are attractive to uber-wealthy people. They will be even less attractive if they begin to accept every Ben and Sarah from all the NY privates. The discounts (called 'merit') outside the top tier have largely been used to get butts in the seats, not to augment geographical or social diversity. There may be an odd applicant or two who would have gone to Mills and is unexpectly accepted at Sarah Lawrence, but not nearly enough to fill the class at most mid-range schools. |
Ma’am, what do you not understanding about cuts to universities that will numbers in tens and hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on the school. Paying $5,000 to get a kid who scores 50 more points on the SAT or plays the tuba or is the best applicant from North Dakota isn’t going to be a priority when they are already cancelling Phd programs. There are going to be lots of cuts to non essential proehrams and merit aid is not essential to keep the school running. |
are you referring to the republican students or the democrat students here? There has been no tolerance of conservative points of view on campus for at least a decade. |
You are wrong. These schools are not paying $5k to get a slighter-higher scoring kid. They are paying to get ANY kid willing to pay tuition -$5K. Merit is a business decision for colleges, and used to lure families that will pay some fraction of the full price. It is not used to lure more attractive students. Just look at all the examples in this thread of mediocre, full-pay DC students who are offered merit at T50-100 schools. Why you are so resistant to understanding pricing strategy, I do not know. |
Why are you so resistant to the fact that pricing strategy will be changing due to extreme budget cuts? By the way, there were two (not a myriad) examples of schools that give merit to nearly everyone, they are both ranked 91. |
Certainly, many things will change. However, I don't know how producers (i.e., colleges) can expect to find success while raising prices (i.e., average tuition) in the middle of recession/ much lowered consumer confidence, while offering a lower quality product. Contrary to what you seem to believe, non-elite schools are just not turning away that many full-pay students. For all but the top schools, cutting merit would lead to LOWER total revenue. To do so expecting an influx of full-pay students would be wishful thinking, not strategy. |
U guess we will see, you seem to be talking |
About schools that relied on marit to fill a class. I submit that there are actually many more schools than you think that are currently giving merit to only 10 to 15 percent of the class. Look at Maryland. They could fill their class no problem without merit. |
No our kids will not have anything near a normal college experience or post-college trajectory. It's very sad.
Unless we find a way to put legal constraints on his behavior, the Senate Republicans grow a spine and block his efforts, or we vote the Dems back into majority. The current admin is too busy lining their pockets with corrupt self deals to follow any kind of normal Republican or ethical behavior. And the so-called normal Republicans won't stand up to him because they are scared. So we need to vote them all out. |
Ok, I have been talking mostly about privates (which, last year, had on average something like 56% discount rate). For state schools, some give merit to OOS candidates bc even with the merit discount, the OOS tuition is higher than what they'd get from an in state student. That is certainly true of the best bargains. Schools like University of Alabama, which gives full ride scholarships to all NMSF -- I will conceded that they could cut that and in the short-to-medium term increase revenue. That said, I still maintain that most colleges that give "merit" to any more than 2% of the incoming students are calculating on how to maximize revenue, not trying to bring in marginally more attractive students. I think enrollment management algorithms are pretty sophisticated, and that dropping merit at these schools would hurt their bottom lines immediately. |
Don’t see why red state is not fine as well. |
What has changed for the college experience? I get the research grants. People will just have to deal. But what else? |
Cuts to anything in the student life category as its a discretionary part of the university budget. Universities will be very cost-conscious now that they’re losing so much funding. So something as simple as the treadmills breaking down and not being replaced in the studebt gym? A/C or hate breaking down in dorms and not being fixed quickly or at all? Less variety for breakfast. No staff to serve breakfast in cafeteria as in just yogurt or fruit cups to go. Less variety and dining halls generally. No longer giving free bus passes on public transportation. The school’s own buses may not run after a certain time between buildings. In inclement weather snow removal will take longer or may not happen at all. Fewer doctors and nurses in the student health center. Do you want me to go on? Little cuts here and there can and will make a difference to the budget. |
If colleges are in existential crisis mode, and many think they will be, there will be hiring freezes. More non-tenure track faculty. Fewer, and lower paid, teaching assistants. Fewer academic advisors. Shorter opening hours at the library and the campus gym. Fewer seminars on campus (no $ to bring in outside speakers and put them up.) Reduced arts programming. Reduced course offerings and larger class sizes. Less money for student activities (so, for example, no pizza at club meetings). Lots of things can, and will, be cut. Many of these things don't touch the core functions of the university (pizza, for example), but some -- especially increased class size and increased use of contingent faculty -- do. All of them will result in a less service, and a lower quality of life, for undergraduate students. |
It’s a terrible time to enter. DD recently called us sobbing about not having a summer internship; by instincts I laughed at the idea, until she told and showed me how many students have internships now, many by freshman year. The pre-professional pressure is crumpling her, and she’s at an LAC, for Christ sakes! Some of her friends seem like they have more experience than me at this point, it’s really sad watching the stress. |