| Opinion | Jan. 30, 2008 | 11:50 pm |
Northwestern can afford to be cheaper. So why isn’t it?
By
It’s no wonder that on a campus where seven percent of the freshmen class comes from another country, you can still find plenty of sameness to go around. We might come from different cultures, but Northwestern students usually share one thing: lots of money. Even of those awarded financial aid, about 70 percent come from families making above the national median income.
The biggest reason for this, of course, is the price tag. The tuition currently stands at $35,064 per year and promises to grow quickly. Of the few who can pay out, an even smaller fraction is actually willing to do so. The result is a campus filled by the upper-middle class.
These circumstances aren’t only unfortunate for the people who can’t afford to come here; they’re also discouraging to the current students who expected a sense of reality out of the college experience. (For public high school graduates, it may actually be a step backward.) If you’ve ever noticed the strong Northwestern tradition of complaining about anything and everything in sight (“I can’t believe that test. Who does that professor think he is?”), chances are you’ve picked up on the sense of entitlement that almost all NU students carry with themselves. Pretty annoying, isn’t it?
Other colleges may not have the resources to lower their tuition costs, but Northwestern does – and why isn’t that reason enough? While the university doles out a seemingly respectable $213.2 million in financial aid every year, this is much less impressive when put in context. Northwestern offers aid to 42 percent of its students, but consider that Cornell University, which has a smaller endowment and almost 5,000 more students, offers aid to 48 percent.
NU could also easily stop the steady rise in tuition. According to the Congressional Research Service, a tiny 0.7% endowment payout could end tuition increases at the 20 schools with the largest endowments. Apparently, no one is listening: Northwestern – No. 12 on the list – actually watched its tuition go up 4.96 percent this academic year.
What NU needs now is a cue from its peers. Harvard made a splash earlier this month for eliminating tuition paid by students from families making under $60,000 a year, and for greatly reducing tuition for families making up to $180,000 a year. (Hey, in this market, even the somewhat well-to-do could use a break.)
Though Harvard holds an endowment five times the size of ours, NU could still apply the same policy or some variant on it. According to the Harvard Crimson, the plan costs the Ivy about $22 million a year. If Northwestern implemented a similar program just using the money received from its Lyrica rights deal, the university could sustain it for 31 years. By then maybe the students will have bigger problems to complain about.
John said,
January 31, 2008 @ 3:53 pm
Haha, way to bozo yourself:
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2008/01/noloanpolicy.html
Adam said,
January 31, 2008 @ 6:14 pm
I dont know why I’m arguing with you (probably my sense of entitlement) because I don’t like these high costs any more than anyone else. But Bienen has said on record (in the Daily) that Northwestern spends a much higher percentage of its endowment every year than comparable institutions. Congress is trying to pass a bill that would force colleges and universities that receive federal grant money, i.e. all colleges and universities, to spend at least five percent of their endowments every year. I dont remember exact figures, I think he said NU spends something like eight percent. And while we do have a pretty big endowment (6.5 billion), its nothing compared to Ivies like Harvard (34.9 billion) and Yale (22.5 billion).
I think some of that $700 million from Lyrica could probably send a few kids to school for cheap though.
Ben said,
February 1, 2008 @ 12:23 am
There was an article in the NY Times magazine about a year ago which alleged the exact opposite of this article. It raised the situation of some liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, I think, which had a tuition set lower than most other colleges it thought it was competitive with. However, it was having trouble attracting quality students, so they tried to raise their price. All of a sudden, applications skyrocketed and their rankings in US News and the like went soaring. It seems that people saw the sticker tag and assumed it was somehow defective, but when the price looked normal this was no longer an issue.
Northwestern is already a well-known college competing for some very good students. If we lowered our price, it would probably get on national news, and would hopefully convince other good universities to lower their prices, and then the rest of the colleges would follow.
However, I think high tuition is less of a problem as good financial aid. Those who can afford to pay for college should do so, regardless of however ridiculous the price is. The increasing number who would be unable to pay should get high aid to help them stay out of debt while paying as much as they are able.
Ben said,
February 1, 2008 @ 12:24 am
Just looked at the link in comment 1. Good work, Northwestern.
Trisha said,
February 1, 2008 @ 10:50 am
So… I know that everyone loves to bitch about how awful the cost of Northwestern is, and I would definitely know more than most how much it sucks.
But really? Stop. For the vast majority of students, those numbers are just numbers: how many of you wrote that first check to Northwestern? Yeah, I didn’t think so. When I wrote a $4,000 check to Northwestern from the two jobs I worked over the summer for 50 hours a week, it was hell.
But I feel really lucky. Northwestern was cheaper for me than University of Illinois did, even though I’m an in-state student. Yes, it still takes a lot of sacrifice, and I’m probably going to be in debt for years to come. But I have friends back home who couldn’t even afford to go to the local community college because they had to take on a full-time job to support themselves.
I think increasing financial aid is great, but to bash Northwestern for the good job they’re doing already is bullshit. And the idea of giving more money to kids whose parents are going to foot the bill no matter what seems ridiculous. (AKA household incomes of more than $150,000).
So please, stop bitching.
Justin said,
February 2, 2008 @ 1:25 pm
Yeah, I don’t see much wrong with high tuition as long as financial aid covers it.
kp said,
February 3, 2008 @ 4:35 pm
“What NU needs now is a cue from its peers. Harvard made a splash earlier this month for eliminating tuition paid by students from families making under $60,000 a year, and for greatly reducing tuition for families making up to $180,000 a year. (Hey, in this market, even the somewhat well-to-do could use a break.)”
$180,000 is only somewhat well-to-do?!? And here I thought that was incredibly well-to-do. I sometimes forget what kind of people I go to school with.
Paul Schrodt said,
February 3, 2008 @ 6:06 pm
kp, the “somewhat” was meant to be humorous. maybe that didn’t translate.