Because even full pay consumers need a competitive price. If the price becomes too high, consumers will go elsewhere. There are many fine LACs.
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Agreed—in a pricing market that is both transparent and elastic.
Higher education is neither of those.
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The surface explanation is [edit: some very big] donors like giving to institutions that compete successfully for “top” applicants, and having a competitive full pay COA is deemed necessary to succeed in those efforts as a lot of applicants considered “top” are full pay.
The deeper question is why do these donors decide to use their charity in that way? Why give so much money to institutions that very disproportionately serve higher income families?
And there are various psychological and social explanations, but I personally never find any of them very ethically satisfying. But for sure it works, and has been working for a long time.
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I don’t think this quite captures it.
I donate and give service to my Alma mater, a SLAC, amongst other nonprofits. Why? It has nothing to do with “top” applicants. I don’t give a hoot about that. I am incredibly grateful for the education I received, which made me who I am today, and would like to pay it forward, especially for kids who would not otherwise have financial access to a top tier SLAC
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Sorry, I did not mean to imply that all donors think the same way. That should be something like “some very big donors”, and in fact I will make that change.
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I agree with this sentiment. Rather, my S24 agrees with this sentiment. After all the scholarships given to him both by the institution and outside sources, he now has a new mission of giving back. He is very moved both by the university and other scholarship sponsors that he will be able to get an education wherein he will be very close to being debt free. It’s very powerful and humbling to be the recipient of such generosity that I think the only right course of action is to give back in the same way that you were given to.
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I think it’s both - When I look at my college magazines, there’s always so many foundations or super wealthy in the big money category and while there’s a lot of names in the $25 - $250 category…I mean a lot (it’s actually several categories), I’m assuming it’s those top givers (foundations, etc.) that are providing the bulk of the donations.
I don’t know their rationale and it probably differs.
It’d be interesting to know - and the schools may (or may not) - are those regular folks donating more along the lines of full pay students or students who were awarded need aid - as a percentage of overall giving. I’m guessing - but don’t know - those who received need aid probably donate at a higher percent than full pay.
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The schools generally know, and some have done very extensive work on this. Not surprisingly, it depends on what connection the person felt to the school. If students who received FA felt like outsiders (a phenomenon that schools have been working harder and harder to eliminate, but was understandable given many of the practices, even well-meaning ones), no they are unlikely to give. Students who maintain friendships with college friends are more likely to give. (Reunions can be important to this function.) Athletes in bigger programs were more likely to not give, perhaps feeling that any aid/scholarship received was more akin to payment for performance than a gift. Folks with capacity for major gifts are cultivated more individually, and even at the super-endowed schools, there are few enough of them that the development offices can understand what could motivate them to give.
So many perks are actually designed to ensured a sense of belonging for everyone. Finding out why people don’t give also points to parts of the experience that may be detracting from what the school hopes to achieve.
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FWIW: My spouse and I both graduated from our home state’s public flagship. We used to regularly donate to it, but then realized that it’s got a pretty solid endowment, so we switched our donations to our home state’s (much less well endowed) public HBCU.
Some of us education donors do, after all, realize that our donations can have a bigger impact at less well resourced colleges and universities.
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That is disappointing. OTOH we had a good experience at Colby’s admitted student’s day. But my D didn’t go to the psych class. Where is your son going? (If you don’t mind saying). Best of lluck.
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What two majors is he interested in? Are you a CA resident? If OOS, have you looked at Santa Clara? USC is very urban. Different energy than UCLA, but it is easy to double major or major/minor.
CA residents. Yes, he likes USC, but I don’t think I can bring myself to write them a check. Topic of a different discussion.
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Have you visited other UCs? Thoughts on UCSD? It has the academic rigor and a So Cal vibe similar to UCLA.
Yes.
UCSD - totally eliminated. Hated everything about the campus - buildings, student vibe. Too science-y like a star track convention he says.
UCIrvine - eliminated. commuter campus. Modern. Felt like a community college.
UCB - unsafe, unkept, eliminated. Terrible music program.
UCSB - too many bikes. Looks like community college. Liked the town, so will apply.
He is picky 
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Did you consider Case Western ?
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Not a good fit for a number of reasons.
A couple of other CA ideas:
Not sure who the teacher is on his instrument, but has he looked at Chapman? My oldest attended (violin) years ago. Many students double major, high level music. It is smallish, but the campus and community are very nice. They were quite generous with merit and with my kid’s academic scholarship stacked with some music merit, cost was less than a UC.
Same kid also looked at UOP, campus and music were great. The town of Stockton is quite depressing though.
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Yep, the Mackenzie Scott model
“ When the representative told Munroe that Scott was giving BMCC an unrestricted gift of $30 million, the largest gift in the history of the institution, he began to cry.”
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And think about that for a moment—in a world where nine-digit donations to wealthy colleges have become noteworthy but not actually surprising, a $30M gift was the largest in the history of an underfunded institution with an enrollment above 20k.
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A really impactful small dollar donation is to contact student accounts and ask if there is anyone with a small balance that is preventing their diploma from being mailed. It’s pretty common to hold back a diploma for an unpaid bill, which could be anything from a forgotten library book or parking fine, or a lab fee that didn’t get roped in with their financial aid, etc. I have done this anonymously at my own school, and I like to think that the recipient is surprised to get a zero balance due invoice with their official diploma in their mailbox unexpectedly. (and when I say small balance, I will ask accounts about anyone under 500, and then they pick someone for me - it’s that common. We are a school that serves a lot of FGLI folks.)
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