I got waitlisted at a few selective colleges so this is good news for me. But bad news for those that are affected by this virus.
Most state legislatures meet in the spring to set the July-June budgets, including both k-12 and college funding. I know our state legislature is not meeting in person right now so don’t know how close the budget is to being finalized. The state is going to be bleeding money to reimburse the cities for emergency services, for extra costs for schools, for state employee salaries for those who have been furloughed. There are no funds coming in from sales tax or hotel rentals or tourist dollars. There are no funds coming in for court cases and fines, but the employees still need to be paid and the buildings maintained.
I’m not sure if they will cut the college budgets for next year, but I know they will for the 2021 school year. The money just won’t be there.
“Probably most of their applicants present 800 in math level 2 and 800 (or very close) in one or more sciences anyway, so they do almost nothing to distinguish between applicants to MIT and Caltech.”
Right, which why colleges like them looked for AMC scores and/or AIME qualification to distinguish applicants. And in non-stem as can be seen from applicants on the decision threads, most that apply to selective schools typically have 800 (or close) on history subject test, above 750 in a foreign language or english comp.
How would the present situation affect international students seeking full funding?
What about this doomsday scenario… COVID does not entirely clear up by this summer (which is likely) and health dept officials are making dire warnings about an uptick in infection rates… schools are presented with either delaying the start of the academic year (unlikely) or starting virtually (likely). Would you send your current 12th grader to school at full price for year 1 if it was in a virtual setting? How many parents would try to go Gap Year? I know that students who are already in it have fewer options. But for those of us who are thinking of sending our student to start as a freshman in the fall? I wouldn’t pay full price for a 1st year of college that is only available virtually.
PS. COVID will be the death knell for many small, expensive private schools. We have already seen 2 closures here in Oregon BEFORE COVID as parents/students don’t see the value in a 60k+ private undergrad degree.
Well I don’t personally think students not being able to live away at college for a few semesters is a doomsday scenario, but I get your point.
We don’t know yet will happen, but schools probably aren’t going to approve all the GAP year requests they might see. Then, the student will have to go thru the admissions process again…and what will they do during the gap year?
If colleges aren’t back in session…there likely won’t be international GAP year opportunities, let alone much happening domestically. Might as well be in school. If you don’t want to pay as much for online tuition, in-state publics could be the best choice.
Seems like there won’t be a lot of gap year opportunities, besides working in a store that sells groceries.
PS. COVID will be the death knell for many small, expensive private schools. We have already seen 2 closures here in Oregon BEFORE COVID as parents/students don’t see the value in a 60k+ private undergrad degree.
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Well I don’t personally think students not being able to live away at college for a few semesters is a doomsday scenario, but I get your point.
We don’t know yet will happen, but schools probably aren’t going to approve all the GAP year requests they might see. Then, the student will have to go thru the admissions process again…and what will they do during the gap year?
If colleges aren’t back in session…there likely won’t be international GAP year opportunities, let alone much happening domestically. Might as well be in school. If you don’t want to pay as much for online tuition, in-state publics could be the best choice.
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I meant doomsday for the universities. For students and parents it is potentially an inconvenience, a disappointment and one might argue a poor investment (value of virtual school versus studying and living together).
In the grand scheme of things, if 25% (or even 50%) of the colleges with enrollments lower than 2K close down, that will be but a small blip in the overall college market.
Of course, colleges closing down is not a small blip for the communities where they are located.
While no one can predict how admissions will be impacted this year (less enrollment, more waitlists accepted, not being able to fill class targets, etc…), I’m also concerned with how this will effect future tuition increases. Will we see costs skyrocket when our kids are in their sophomore year and beyond? Do the schools have any guidelines they have to follow when it comes to tuition increases, such as tuition can’t go up more than x% per year?
The loss of small colleges, I would argue, would be devastating. Locally small colleges are the place that undocumented students can attend, where student faculty ratios are very small, where athletes who love the game can still play and in some cases are a lifeline to the community in which they are located.
We could argue that small private colleges were already on life support and I wouldn’t disagree. My sister currently works at a D3 school with less than 2000 kids and they can’t keep total costs below 60,000 per year. Just a broken model.
Agree that the model is broken.
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@Skrunch I’m pretty sure that many schools have gap year options that don’t require permission.
Some make promises about level tuition or limits on increases. Others do not, so there could be some unpleasant surprises. Other possible surprise costs could be in dorm costs, although off campus housing or commuting costs could move differently.
Some (not all) states’ public universities allow those with DACA-type status (whether or not officially in DACA) to attend with state residency based on graduating high school in the state after enough years of school attendance in the state. Texas and California are some examples of such states.
That suggests that such colleges cannot educate more than a tiny percentage of academically qualified students, since few families can afford that cost. (But how do public LACs and other small public colleges like the “mine” schools exist at presumably more economy-class budgets?)
As the parent of student who has received very generous need-based aid packages, I’m particularly concerned about the possibility of an abnormally large tuition increase or a reduction in future aid (or both). The conversation about how much we can afford was well behind us and guided our reach-heavy application strategy, but it may need to happen again. Ugh. Suggesting the top 20 schools he’s been accepted to might not be the best options will be less comfortable than root canal.
Schools can set COA however they want…of course they could see reduced demand if prices are too high or increases too great.
I expect T20s will be fine financially, and won’t have larger than normal COA increases (normally plan on 4%), or see large decreases in fin aid.
It may be a very different story at colleges that have low endowments, poor financial conditions, don’t meet full need, and/or have been significantly funding operations with endowment money.
Interesting. Do the states like Texas and California allow undocumented, DACA status kids to access financial aid, though? That is the rub in Oregon. Only the smaller, private schools have been accessible to some of these really impressive kids. If they disappear, I really worry where we suggest this group of students go for further education.
2, here is one theory: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-reason-college-tuition-costs-so-much.html
I find this from the NYTs pretty compelling. My anecdotal research this year sure seems to support this. I mean how many Vice Presidents and Assistant Provosts (making 200k plus) does a college need to run effectively?
California gives FA to some DACA/undocumented students.
Regarding college costs: NYT article is firewalled. Not sure how much fat there is in terms of administrative positions at LACs, unsure about larger research universities. And salaries are a function of the supply and demand, as in any industry.
Other things leading to increasing costs: decreased state education funding, and government mandated reporting requirements, many more as compared to even a decade or two ago. Other things behind cost increases include mental health and LD supports. I’m sure other posters can cite more reasons for COA increases.
But, and maybe most importantly, any type of cost increase analysis has to look at the net college price, not list price. Average college discount is now over 50%…which suggest the traditional college model is not working so well.