@fuschiachop – Did your visit to Pitt happen to be at one of their “blue and gold” days? We are headed there in about 2 weeks and I am wondering if it was well run? I feel like big, open-house-style tour days are either a huge hit or very chaotic! (And I am secretly hoping it is a hit. My D seems to be gravitating towards urban campuses and Pitt has a very good program in her area of interest. Plus I grew up in the North Hills, so there’s that too.)
We did not go on one of the Blue and Gold days. But if our regular day tour is any indication, I imagine you will be in good hands with Pitt. They really did a good job with their information and organization, and the people were really friendly.
I hope your experience is a hit, too! Good luck!!
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Wyoming sent my daughter a calendar as her first swag. It was beautiful with pictures of the campus in all seasons, and all the due dates filled in. It was 16 months, so even went to college with her. She probably still has it.
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You are right–nothing is free.
When we toured Bowdoin, our tour guide gushed about the school providing free winter coats (up to $250) and boots (up to $125) to students getting need aid. As we went along, he mentioned a few other freeby programs that he had taken advantage of. He was clearly delighted.
In my head, I was correcting him. Not free. The full pays are paying for much of it.
Universities are huge and complex cost shifting operations.
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In other contexts, it would be a drinking game, but myD24 and I definitely kept track of “free laundry, free parking, free…” etc. It’s INCLUDED - not free. 
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I don’t disagree, but schools like Bowdoin spend more per student than the full COA. The Bowdoin Orient wrote an article (maybe a series?) about this around 2019 or so.
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I feel like “something is free” could be added to the tour bingo game, like the blue lights on campus, the “you can always make a club if there’s one you don’t want to join” comment, the “tell me if I’m going to walk into something” comment, etc.
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Yeah, C25 neither likes nor wears t-shirts, but the fact that the Syracuse one was the nice soft fabric was a huge positive.
I was just listening to the Malcolm Gladwell podcast on Bowdoin and their food offerings. I want to go there! LOL
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Nothing is free, though from middle kid’s perspective, she would call those Pitt t-shirts free. Not only did someone pay for her Pitt t-shirts, but someone paid for her education (she attended when the full tuition merit scholarships were more common).
Pitt does a great job with the tours and information sessions. At some other colleges, those sessions were disappointing. I think the worst was BU…it was all very staged, with the two women running it claiming they never met before that day, then finishing each other’s sentences. Add on to that there is no real campus, and it was off the list.
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UMN not only talked about a lettuce, a cheese, AND a squirrel watching club, but also included a watching people watching squirrels club.
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I wish Colby had done more on my admitted son’s visit.
Terrible interruptions in the freshman psych class, horrible, cold and putrid food(after having had excellent food pre-pandemic), and no tour of the new performing arts center. It was enough to sway S24 to another school. And it’s not like Colby does not have a huge endowment.
What kind of interruptions?
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Kids talking so loud my son couldn’t hear what the professor was saying, kids swearing at each other, kids shopping on their phones/computers.
Entitled much?
Truly disappointing. The parents weren’t treated much better, according to M24.
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This, in stark contrast to the same accepted student psychology class S24 attended at the school he will be attending.
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There is a huge difference between marketing swag and providing clothing for students in your community. Bowdoin should be applauded for providing some basic staples of winter clothing for students who don’t have them.
We had 2 attend LACs in Philly, and living in the area we would have upwards of half a dozen or so join us every year for Thanksgiving. One year (at my sister-in-law’s), one of the friends showed up without a jacket on a very cold day. There was a firepit, and some outdoor stuff going on…and he looked cold. My daughter told my wife that she’s never seen him in a jacket/coat… he’s from Louisiana, and she wasn’t sure he had one.
My BIL is an outdoorsy type, and has all kinds of climbing, biking, etc. jackets. My SIL brought one out to him, which he gladly put on. When it was time to go, my SIL told him to keep it…it wasn’t getting any use at their house, which he did. Our daughter said that he wore that jacket through college. He was at school on a scholarship and didn’t want to ask his parents for money for a coat.
It’s incredibly important that schools appreciate and support the “hidden” inequities in their community. Little things like clothing, train tickets to the city, meals off campus, and other expenses that “full pay” kids don’t think twice about have a real impact on the experience of those from less affluent backgrounds.
As someone who paid for several LAC educations, I’m OK with the institutions spending some of my money to support the experiences of other students. I’m not OK with them sending a T-shirt home in a Range Rover after a tour.
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What “full pays” pay does not cover the cost of their child’s education. You aren’t paying for these items that most would deem necessary for a child to be successful. The endowment pays for this and covers the differential between what a “full pay” child pays and the cost of their education.
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Swarthmore…(and I’d guess almost every other selective LAC) for starters.
The budget for 2022-23 shows a $111M draw on their (very large) endowment. That means they spend $66,500 per student (1,670 per the link). I’m not gonna make this a project, but let’s assume half of the attendees pay 100% of the retail price listed $77,300, and half pay nothing. That equals an average revenue of $38,650 per kid. Throw in the $66k from the endowment, and the average cost of the education received is $105k.
I know that’s low. I’ve read it elsewhere, but Swats cost of education is around $125k per student per year, meaning nobody is paying close the full cost to educate their child.
Edit: just realized the 2024-25 budget is also on the linked page… and it tells the same story with a $125M draw on the endowment for 1,688 students = $74,289 each. Inflation.
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I didn’t pose a question. I posed a declarative statement. Not sure where you got that. I have been on the development side of the equation for many years as a volunteer. Nobody pays the actual cost of education, no matter which educational institution you want to look at. My point is that “Full pays” are not helping covering the cost of those that don’t or any additional assistance.
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The problem, of course, with every student being charged less than the cost of education due to the use of endowment earnings is that even the ultrawealthy get a scholarship, just one that doesn’t appear on the books.
Why not have the sticker price be what it actually costs, and use those precious (and I use that word unironically here) endowment returns to subsidize the cost for those who actually, you know, need it?