As private universities try “to find the magic balance between tuition and financial aid,” parents of prospective and current students continue to struggle with college affordability, reports a recent Chronicle article, “As Tough Times Persist, Colleges Must Live With Last year’s Decisions.”
To encourage parents to remain positive (and paying), private universities last year worked to keep tuition increases low and to increase financial aid opportunities. This year, however, those changes appear harder to maintain; universities depend on their tuition increases year-to-year and can’t forego the increases two years in a row. Many universities plan on returning to pre-recession tuition and financial aid increases this coming year, states The Chronicle article.
In the world of the Ivies: Top universities like Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth are further attempting to cut costs and promote affordability by continuing to make budget cutbacks, says a Daily Pennsylvanian article from last week. The article, “No new plans for University budget cuts,” does state, however, that the University of Pennsylvania has not yet announced cutback plans. Penn is less endowment-dependent than the other Ivies—only 9% of its operating budget is endowment-financed—and so lost less proportionately in the last fiscal year.
Of course all schools are looking for new sources of revenue and are making financial changes to reflect the current economic climate, including:
- Only 2% of Yale’s staff will receive salary increases.
- The number of admitted grad students at Yale will be reduced 10-15%.
- Brown will reduce its staff members, as part of a $30 million budget cut plan.
- Harvard’s deficit has dropped to $80 million due in part to budget cuts and donations.
- Dartmouth will restore its loan program and eliminate its “No-Loan” policy.
Accepted.com Related Resources
- Financing Your Future, an instantly downloadable ebook
- Weighing Cost and Quality in Public Universities, a blog post
- Applying to B-School in Times of Crisis, an Accepted.com special report
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Source: As Tough Times Persist, Colleges Must Live With Last Year’s Decisions (http://chronicle.com/article/As-Tough-Times-Persist/64006/)
Source: No new plans for University budget cuts (http://thedp.com/article/no-new-plans-university-budget-cuts)
Related: Financing Your Future (http://www.accepted.com/grad/graduatescholarships.aspx?utm_campaign=BlogContent&utm_medium=Blog&utm_source=BlogVisitors&utm_content=FinanceFuture)
Related: Weighing Cost and Quality in Public Universities (http://blog.accepted.com/acceptedcom_blog/2010/1/11/weighing-cost-and-quality-in-public-universities.html?utm_campaign=BlogContent&utm_medium=Blog&utm_source=BlogVisitors&utm_content=BlogPost)
Related: Applying to B-School in Times of Crisis (http://www.accepted.com/mba/applyingbschoolcrisis.pdf?utm_campaign=BlogContent&utm_medium=Blog&utm_source=BlogVisitors&utm_content=CrisisSpecialReport)
Read the full article: Top Universities Strive to Restore Pre-Recession Policies While Maintaining Affordability