NY Times article: Seeking Higher Learning at Lower Cost

[LurkNessMonster]

<p>

As with any campus tour, you get a lot of numbers at SUNY Binghamton, the top-rated school in the State University of New York system.</p>

<p>There’s the average grade-point average for incoming students (93 or 3.5), the number of applications last year (26,500), the acceptance rate (39 percent), where the metropolitan area ranks in safety among the nation’s midsize cities (11), and where Kiplinger’s Personal Finance ranked the university nationally in terms of value (1).</p>

<p>But for the slightly shellshocked parents taking the tour on Friday, peering nervously at the daily disaster on the television screens where the tag on CNN read “Financial Crisis and You,” chances are the number that made the biggest impression was this one: 16,452.</p>

<p>Add a dollar sign, and it’s the annual tuition, fees, room and board at a time when the price tag at most competitive private colleges is nearing $50,000.</p>

<p>The result is one more number: a roughly 50 percent increase in applications so far this fall as college-savings plans melt away, parents worry about job security and price becomes a major factor in the college-application anxiety pit, even for well-off families, in a way it has not been in the past.</p>

<p>“Can you afford not to choose Binghamton?” reads the leaflet university officials hand out at college fairs.

</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/nyregion/26towns.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/nyregion/26towns.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Get your applications in early!</p>

[HarrietMWelsch]

<p>Fact-checkers of the world, does anybody besides me see a problem with the 93 average = 3.5 GPA?</p>

[LurkNessMonster]

<p>Yes, I think that’s wrong, too. I think a 3.5 comes out to about a 90, right? But there are different ways of figuring.</p>

[rodney]

<p>harriet: you also have to account for the fact that NYS students, on the whole, are graded on a “weighted” scale of 100, while many,many OOS students are graded on an unweighted 4.0 scale. Those involved to try to find out whether Binghamton does a re-do on GPA’s or reports whatever is provided to them by the high schools. In addition, they are actively recruiting OOS students and MAY, and i repeat may, accept slighty lower stats. Although with 50% increase this year, that may have to go by the wayside…
the big q remains: Which is the bigger goal? Increase the ranking (by becoming more selective) or increase OOS population (which would help the budget)…?</p>

[momof3sons]

<p>You know, LurkNess, as a fellow NY’er, I resisted posting this link. More competition for our kids!?!?! ;)</p>