Posted on 03/16/2006 8:18:49 AM PST by libertarianPA
STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford University, worried about losing talented students to sticker shock, is eliminating tuition for undergraduates from the some of the lowest-income families.
Under a new program announced Wednesday, students from families with annual incomes of less than $45,000 won't pay tuition. Those with incomes up to $60,000 will pay about $3,800, the school estimates.
"Students from low-income backgrounds are underrepresented at our nation's most selective institutions," said Richard Shaw, Stanford's dean of undergraduate admission and financial aid.
"Many families ... may be discouraged by the stated tuition, so we want to be more forceful with this new program in encouraging talented low-income students to consider Stanford," he said.
Stanford's undergraduate tuition for the next school year will be nearly $33,000. Add in other expenses, such as books and housing, and the cost averages about $47,000.
Stanford already provides strong financial aid. This year, students from families earning less than $45,000 paid an average $2,650, according to the university. The new program, starting for an estimated 1,100 current and new students this fall, is expected to cost the university $3 million in the first year.
Harvard and Princeton are among other elite universities with similar programs.
College costs have been rising fast nationwide. According to the latest survey from the College Board, a nonprofit association based in Washington, D.C., tuition and fees at four-year private institutions rose nearly 6 percent to $21,235 for the 2005-06 academic year from $20,045 in 2004-05, while costs at four-year public institutions went up more than 7 percent to $5,491 from $5,126.
I am sure Stanford has a more than ample endowment to cover it.
Oh how I wish this was true 12 years ago! I would have qualified. As for the funding, I'm sure their endowment covers it. More colleges should be doing this, rather than asking the government (taxpayers) to fund it.
Why wuold taxpayers pay for a private school? Stanford is itself quite a *rich* school.
nowadays, stanford has an annual operating budget of over 2.5 Billion Dollars.
Their endowment is over 10 Billion dollars.
Last year they ran a fundraising drive to raise money to try and cover schemes such as these for promising low income students. they raised a billion dollars.
I think that should cover a few po-boys to feed the poor folk.
The 2001 median family income was $52,275.
there goes any incentive to actually try harder. . . again.
Well arguably the ones getting screwed are the families of the students who are not poor enough to go for free, but not nearly wealthy enough to afford the school without help.
That usually means borrowing, even after the scholarships and grants are tallied.
How can anyone complain about giving a smart kid a break?
Then you guys whine that the US doesnt keep up with Asian countries which subsidise college eduation to the point that its almost free.
And as for loans and trying harder.. if the kid can go to college for free on the strength of his brains.. I think thats a lot harder than filling out a loan application.
I have to respect folk who get scholarships.
Yeah, that reached out and grabbed me too. Apparently $60K is when you stop being "low income". Which is interesting, because $44K is the median income in the country--so exactly half the families in America are "low income" by Stanford's standard.
I guess I'm lower middle-class after all.
Can you spell military?
Stanford being a private University, I guess they can do as they please.
Financial aid and loans are what's making college so expensive in the first place.
Schools at this level rarely give out merit scholarships anyway. As for the richer students, no one is forcing them to go to Stanford, Harvard, or Princeton if they feel the price plan is unfair. The full cost is still about the same as other top schools (Yale, Duke, etc.) who do not do this.
I think there's an assumpution that there's taxpayer money involved, or that other students are paying the difference.
Very few folk are aware of how big those endowments are.
Most of these schools have HUGE endowments - in the billions.
The income from those endowments are probably actually sufficient to run the whole school.
If I were making $61K and my student wanted to go to Stanford (which, thank heavens he does not), I would have my pants in a bunch. Or if I made $80K. Or 90K. And got the whole hit.
At Princeton, they do not give loans, it is all grant money. I suspect Stanford's program will be similar.
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