I remember that. Ironically, it is still common among non-merit/strictly need-based, colleges to refer to their “discount rate” measuring tuition income.
1 Like
These comparisons are good for giggles and I agree that more transparency is better than none at all. Nevertheless, you’re right: it’s easy to take them too literally. For example, it would be easy to conclude from looking at the Bowdoin Orient article that Wesleyan University spends less money on faculty than just about any other NESCAC when, in fact, according to the latter’s 2018-2019 Annual Report, its instructional payroll is about 4Xs larger ($105M vs. $27M using Bowdoin as a comparison):
The complicating factor, of course, is that Wesleyan University has nearly twice as many students as Bowdoin.
So, you can hone your accounting skills as much as you like, it’s still going to come down to whether you like one college’s total resources, “vibe”, or spikey department, over the other.
3 Likes
So NESCAC operating costs varying by almost 60k, tuition within a 10k corridor.
That’s totally not a cartel.
I certainly didn’t say that it was or wasn’t, not sure why you tagged me.
But, for the record, I believe there is some price fixing wrt college costs. And there have been multiple investigations and/or lawsuits over the last 5 years or so nibbling around the edges of that (the 568 Presidents Club class action lawsuit, DOJ NACAC lawsuit for anticompetitive practices, DOJ ED investigation (not sure where that stands.))
1 Like
I replied to your post providing the cost information. Not targeting anything you said or didn’t - you were just the messenger, that’s what always happens, they get shot and don’t know why…
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. If you’d like to reply, please flag the thread for moderator attention.