Access and Affordability

[johnwesley]

<p>President Roth has created a “Sustainable Affordability” page on the Wesleyan website. You may not agree with the decision to go “need-aware”, but I think there is some interesting information there. Hopefully, it can form the basis of a discussion on the merits. Signs are that it has already started. </p>

<p>Some highlights: </p>

<p>1) the first chart showing Operating Expenditures, shows financial aid comprising 22% of the budget. However, if you take out “auxiliary enterprises” - things like the dining hall, student housing, the book store - which essentially pay for themselves, the percent goes up to 29% of the “unrestricted budget” which is the third pie chart down.</p>

<p>2) the columns showing a steady creep in the “discount rate” over the years seem to indicate the futility of trying to cover spiraling costs with unlimited increases in tuition. The solution obviously has to be found somewhere else:</p>

<p><a href=“http://2020.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2012/06/22/sustainable-affordability/[/url]”>http://2020.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2012/06/22/sustainable-affordability/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[johnwesley]

<p>“third chart down”</p>

[johnwesley]

<p>

2. the columns [on the “Sustainable Affordability” website] showing a steady creep in the “discount rate” over the years seem to indicate the futility of trying to cover spiraling costs with unlimited increases in tuition. The solution obviously has to be found somewhere else:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>For example, there are those who would argue in favor of Wesleyan simply making up the difference by subsidizing it from the endowment. That is what many highly endowed colleges, including Wesleyan, do. However, it should be pointed out that there are limits as to what endowments – even some that are many times Wesleyan’s size – can do:
[Williams</a> College Rolls Back ‘No Loan’ Policy - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/williams-2/]Williams”>Williams College Rolls Back 'No Loan' Policy - The New York Times)</p>

<p>Still others, have argued that by becoming “need-aware” (as opposed to following the old policy of being “need-blind”)

Wesleyan’s new policy will be a step backwards, as it will make the school even more skewed than it (and all its peers) already are towards the very small percentage of the American population who can afford to pay.

<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/wesleyan-university/1191404-what-has-happened-wesleyan-7.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/wesleyan-university/1191404-what-has-happened-wesleyan-7.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Well, that’s a bit of a conceit because as we all know, a college can play all sorts of games in terms of how they define “full-pay”. For example, a college <em>could</em> raise its tuition sticker price to $1,000,000, and award need-based scholarships of $950,000 to virtually everyone who qualified. In all likelihood, you would end up with 95% of the college on financial aid. It would not, however, significantly change its underlying socio-economic make-up. </p>

<p>Something very like this has been going on at elite colleges for years. In fact, tuition is so high at one particular college that a family income of $263,989 now qualifies it for aid (scroll to about page four): <a href=“http://admission.williams.edu/files/2010/01/2015-Profile3.pdf[/url]”>http://admission.williams.edu/files/2010/01/2015-Profile3.pdf&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>Who would have thought this was possible ten - even five years ago? And, yet this is considered standard operating procedure at an institution with an estimated three times Wesleyan’s endowment.</p>

[nescac]

<p>There’s p<em>n</em>s envy, maybe endowment envy, even unconscious homophobia… but, Eph Envy?</p>

<p>What LAC in or out of NESCAC are you going to try to ■■■■■ next?</p>

[johnwesley]

<p>^^What’s an eph?</p>

[D_yer_Maker]

<p>^ to johnwesley: I didn’t even get that far.</p>

<p>^^ to the person with 1 post who’s whining about trolling: What’s “unconscious homophobia?”</p>

[D_yer_Maker]

<p>On the substance of affordability, I think a public commitment to “need-blind” admissions is a marketing ploy that unnecessarily ties the hands of admissions officers. Admissions officers are trusted to make wise and equitable decisions armed with all sorts of personal information about applicants, so why should they be shielded from financial data from those who will be seeking need-based aid upon matriculation?</p>

<p>How does putting all of that information behind a Chinese wall make them better decision makers when creating a freshman class? I don’t think it does. I don’t think anyone thinks it does. The point of “need-blind” is to encourage applications from low-income applicants by assuring them that they’ll get a fair shake. The benefit to the college is that more applications – and more economically diverse applications – will be submitted, giving the admissions office a larger, more diverse pool to select from. Of course they’re doing their selecting with a slight handicap.</p>

<p>This can lead to freshman classes that are middle-class-free zones, particularly where the financial aid allocations are rigid (as is the case at Wesleyan) and/or not very realistic as to what families can afford to pay as you move deeper into the middle-class pool (which is something none of us can speak to except through anecdote-sharing).</p>

<p>I’d rather see an admissions office that has its hands free to craft a fully diverse freshman class – with full-spectrum economic diversity and not polar-ends-of-the-spectrum diversity. And that means making sure that the financial aid resources are available to give very realistic full-need awards to lower-middle, middle, and upper-middle class families with students who are offered admission. That may mean fewer full-ride admittees…but that doesn’t mean the decisions will be made irresponsibly or that full-need admittees will be cut in favor of full-pay admittees. By removing the onus of “need-blind” admissions while committing to the more important goal of “full-need-met” matriculation, I think Wesleyan improves its reach. And, for now, as many other peer LACs remain cleaved to “need blind,” Wesleyan gains a marketing edge with middle-class applicants that will be at least as commensurate to the marketing edge it’s giving up by giving up on “need-blind.”</p>

<p>I wouldn’t suggest this if there was some question that the admissions office would misuse and abuse the financial aid data inputs to create an upper-class elitist academy. I think that’s the unfounded fear of those who regret a departure from a “need-blind” policy, but there’s nothing that bears that out when you look at how the other inputs – geography, ethnicity, rigor of curriculum, etc. – are managed by the admissions office without that kind of bias. Frankly, they do a great job of creating diverse classes with their hands tied by – and not because of the saving grace of – a “need-blind” policy.</p>

[johnwesley]

<p>

This can lead to freshman classes that are middle-class-free zones, particularly where the financial aid allocations are rigid (as is the case at Wesleyan) and/or not very realistic as to what families can afford to pay as you move deeper into the middle-class pool (which is something none of us can speak to except through anecdote-sharing).</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Ding, ding, ding! Show D’yerMaker what he’s won, Don Pardo!</p>

<p>I think there is more than a little anecdotal evidence to suggest that the lion’s share of financial aid goes to high-need students. We have proxies for high-need that are a matter of public record, for example, Pell Grant recipients. The data suggests a high degree of consistency between Amherst, Williams and Wesleyan – indeed, all the major SLACs – in terms of the percent of Pell Grant recipients among their student bodies:<br>
[Liberal</a> Arts College Rankings 2011 | Washington Monthly](<a href=“http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2011/liberal_arts_rank.php]Liberal”>http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2011/liberal_arts_rank.php)</p>

<p>Clearly, more than 13-14% of their student bodies are on financial aid, suggesting that the balance of their allocations are being spread thinly. The question is how thinly? The vast majority of college-bound families in this country earn too much to qualify for a Pell and not enough where a thousand dollar school-sponsored “grant” would close the deal for them.</p>

[johnwesley]

<p>Daniel de Vise’s Washington Post education column is one of the hidden gems of the blogosphere, IMHO. Here his voice echoes some of what this thread has been about these past two months:

Some top universities dispense aid solely according to need. But remember, Bethesda’s “middle class” earns quite a lot of money and would be deemed wealthy anywhere else. Families living in tiny Bethesda homes earn enough to price themselves out of need-based aid.</p>

<p>Five or 10 years ago, a Bethesda family might have solved this problem by biting the bullet and paying full price: shelling out $40,000 or $50,000 a year to attend a premier national university that’s unwilling to sweeten the deal with aid. </p>

<p>Today, many families have lost that option.

[Five</a> college admissions tips for the A-minus student - College, Inc. - The Washington Post](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/five-admissions-tips-for-the-a-minus-student/2012/07/11/gJQAzku3cW_blog.html]Five”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/five-admissions-tips-for-the-a-minus-student/2012/07/11/gJQAzku3cW_blog.html)</p>

[johnwesley]

<p>This Wall Street Journal article mentions Wesleyan, Williams, Swartmore and Dartmouth. Swarthmore is cited as an example of how quickly and by how much financial aid budgets have ballooned since the beginning of the recession - a whopping 51% in three years:
[Some</a> Schools Cut Student Grants, Scholarships - WSJ.com](<a href=“Some Schools Cut Student Grants, Scholarships - WSJ”>Some Schools Cut Student Grants, Scholarships - WSJ)</p>

[dcsmiss]

<p>Is Dartmouth the only school in the Ivy League that is limiting no loan packages?
When I was up there in March, they told me I would attend free as part of a new initiative for those earning under $100k/yr (which later proved true in my fin aid package).
Does this mean that those with less financial need are a casualty of this new generosity?
If my memory proves true, Dartmouth’s alumni give rate is around 50%, which would place it second out of the Ivies. I hope the alumni association steps up. This is a sad development.</p>

[johnwesley]

<p>^^The WSJ article also mentions Cornell lowering its threshold for loan-free fin/aid from $75,000 to $60,000 beginning Fall 2013. However, Dartmouth may have been unfairly singled out. According to this March 2012 article in the student paper, the Dartmouth board of trustees actually <em>raised</em> its threshold from $75,000 to $100,000:
[TheDartmouth.com:</a> Trustees raise no-loan threshold](<a href=“http://thedartmouth.com/2012/03/05/news/trustees]TheDartmouth.com:”>http://thedartmouth.com/2012/03/05/news/trustees)</p>

<p>Good catch, dcsmiss. ;)</p>

[dcsmiss]

<p>This is really quite sad. Is it weird that I want to become wealthy just so I can prevent this sort of thing from happening? Haha.
Thanks for the clarification though, at least most Americans will be able graduate debt free.</p>