http://www.cbsnews.com/news/stanford-university-expands-tuition-waiver/
Long story short, Stanford just made tuition free for students whose families earn less that $125,000. In addition, students whose families make less than $65,000 will not have to pay room and board.
Meanwhile, Virginia Tech's Board of Visitors just unanimously voted to raise tuition yet again. I realize that Stanford is private and we are public but I have to chuckle and then drink copious amounts of alcohol to kill my sadness when I juxtapose the two.
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Well, that's the power of a $21 Billion endowment (VT's is $796 M).
Harvard, Princeton and Yale do something similar.
and have been for quite a while... oddly no one seems to know this... go figure.
Myself included, clearly.
Sorry, didn't mean it to come across as condescending. I just find it somewhat ironic that the most elite universities on the planet offer free tuition to folks who qualify academically. Yet it's probably one of the best kept secrets in higher ed... and the people who are most likely to know about it are the ones who can afford to pay the tuition.
No, you weren't condescending at all. I genuinely didn't know this stuff. I kind of feel embarrassed I never knew it
That's probably the reason though. So few people qualify that it's not ever relevant. If a school like Marshall was giving out free tuition I bet we'd hear about that a lot more. For most students getting into those elite schools is considered as much of a pipe dream as free tuition.
Exactly, it almost makes sense thinking about it economically. An Ivy League's acceptance rate is probably much more elastic than Marshall (or really any college in the state of West Virginia for that matter)
Admission to those schools, if an applicant happens to fill a targeted demographic (du jour), isn't as daunting as most think. Elastic is a good term, as they're able to be very flexible in the admissions office. I'm inclined to think the reason this initiative is getting press now is because the ivies and Stanford have been taking more heat than usual for being too elitist. They're nothing if not image conscious, and for good reason. One of their own just wrote a book called "Excellent Sheep" lamenting the insulararity of Ivey grads that's been getting a bit of pub.
Regardless, low income tuition plans have been around for a minute:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2006/3/30/harvard-free-tuition-for-families-earning/
I applied to two schools after freshman year: Tech and Marshall. I dont think I even fully submitted the Marshall application and they had already sent me housing options. They definitely have a very high acceptance rate
Up until this academic year, Cooper Union in New York City offered full tuition to all students. Beginning this past fall assistance was reduced due to financial concerns, though students are still granted a minimum of a 50% scholarship.
Keep in mind that the family also has to have assets worth less than $300,000 too along with making less than $125,000 a year. Just having a house and a couple cars could knock you out of the free tuition even if your family makes less than that. Especially if you live in California....
Very valid point.
No such thing as a free lunch. The money has to come from somewhere.
Future UVA students paying their application fee before being turned down?
The $21 billion endowment? In either case, if you're worthy, and you're not as well off, I don't see anything wrong with this.
That's $21 billion that could be spent making tuition lower for EVERYONE instead of a targeted group. Just because some people are better off doesn't mean they should have to pay more for the same education. If costs can be cut or money found to accommodate the few, than it can be made to accommodate the many.
I don't disagree with that either - Why charge that much when you have $21 billion? Same way Apple does for their product I guess.
Couple items.
1) It is not unusual for an individual to contribute specifically to provide such a scholarship. Some schools even have events where recipients meet the donor of their scholarship. By creating that connection, it increases the likelihood that grad will give back in the future.
2) Their goal is attracting applications from students they would not otherwise have access to, allowing them to maintain an exceptionally high academic standard. Dropping tuition by 10%, doesn't get them anything they don't already have.
Obama would disagree!
Don't
Political cheap shots aside, I would think that being a pretty well educated guy, with countless economic advisers at his disposal, would indicate that the president probably has a solid grasp of the above economic principal, given that it is fundamental to basically all economic school of thought. By making a cheap joke about the intelligence level of a very intelligent individual, you've merely made yourself seem less intelligent. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Am I the only one who saw this and immediately thought......... Josh Stanford??? lol
Maybe. I myself thought "Josh Stanford, eh?" when I saw it
His rap career must've really taken off for him to be able to afford this.
That's really nice of him.
Here's the difference. Tuition and fees at Virginia Tech for an out of state student is $24,048 per year. At Stanford, $44,184. So sure, there was an increase in VT's tuition because it allows them to continue operating in the manner that they do. Last year, Stanford received $928.5 MILLION alone in gifts from donors. From what I can gather, VT received $81.1 Million. That's a HUGE difference that allows them to be able to cover that cost for the students that meet the qualifications for the free tuition.
Genuine question - do you think if we got such a large donation, that we'd just blindly pour it into sports (either / or bball / football)? I'm hoping we wouldn't, but i'm not sure how these work.
Donations like that are earmarked. For the donation to go to the Athletic Dept it has to be specifically labeled for the Athletic Department. Money raised by Alumni Giving (when you get a call from the student call center, or when you give annually to your school) never makes its way to the Athletic side of things.
A LOT of people don't understand this. They think when they give to the Hokie Club, they're funding Virginia Tech, when in fact they're only funding the Athletic side of Tech. The Academic side still needs help as well.
Academic and athletic donations are separate entities. Large endowments are usually made with a specific purpose, like a named professorship or something similar.
The other guys already answered this one. The Virginia Tech Foundation is what goes to the Academic side and the Hokie Club goes to the athletic side from my understanding.
I think that's right.
Man, if I had a dollar for every time I heard "I have stopped my donations to VT until Stinespring is fired" when I worked at the SCC.... And when you would tell people that the money they would be giving to us isn't used for athletics, they'd even get upset at that fact.... Frustrating.
A friendly reminder that Stanford's tuition is over $40,000 a year.
I think it's great. I know it can't happen in the real world, but education should be free for everybody.
Depends on how you define education. I feel that nearly everyone would agree that a core education should be free. I don't think it would make sense or be reasonable for specialized training to be free though. Although at the same time it's not to hard to find people on the internet who fancy themselves coaches, doctors, lawyers... you name it.
A lot of education can be had fot free both online and offline. Several prominent universities post lectures online for public consumption. There are also other opportunities ranging from the output of nonprofits like Kahn Academy to how to videos on YouTube. In the offline world a great example of informal education was Harry Truman who have a college degree college but was a prolific reader, claiming to have read all of the 2000+ books, including the encyclopedias in the Independence library by the time he was 14.
Education is simply the process of learning. Diplomas, certifications, etc. are the things that you generally have to pay for and are a way of showing others that you are educated (Though one of my business professors said a bachelors degree only showed employers that you could stick with something for four years, while most of your useful education came after you were hired).
My mom (an elementary school teacher) used to say that she thought you should have to pay for primary education, because it was the most important.
I think we're seeing something of that with the magnate schools an charter schools, and vouchers in some locations, leading to some competition.