NY Times article: Seeking Higher Learning at Lower Cost

LurkNessMonster
Sun, 26 Oct 2008 10:10:37 +0000

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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



http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/nyregion/26towns.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Get your applications in early!