The End of the UW's 30 Percent Off All Diplomas Sale?

So we've been reading in the Seattle Times that Governor Gregoire thinks a 28 percent tuition hike over two years is firm but fair, the editorial board seconds the motion (Ryan Blethen is a Cougar, we note in passing), and the UW's Mark Emmert praises this kind of "flexibility" on tuition because the UW is currently "one of the best bargains in the country." The actual tuition price would shoot up between $1,300-$2,000 over two years, though there's the usual promise of financial aid to defray, etc. We want to point out two things: 1) student loans don't make things less expensive, they make them more expensive, and 2) it's awesome that the primary stakeholders here, the students, are being circumvented in this discussion.

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By MvB in News on April 9, 2009 11:15 AM

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MvB

Publicola just posted a good piece on how this high tuition/high aid model usually results in a higher student debt-load, and fewer poorer students able to attend, regardless of intention.

Troy Morris

Seattlest wouldn't let me post my overly sarcastic comments for a bit...

But yeah, according to the NCES, that 2/3 is a national-wide figure of undergrads graduating with a degree and debt.

Grants, scholarships and work-study do not begin to cover the average 20k secondary education.

MvB

From a UW summary: "The total number of students receiving financial aid and scholarships was projected to be 18,300, or 49% of the total enrollment for 2001-02. (This includes both full and part-time students.) Student loans comprise 66% of the total, at $121,880,000." So you could say that the majority of aid is loan-based. The trend for some time has been to reduce gift aid in favor of loans--as a budget crunch is what's prompting this move, I don't anticipate gift aid will increase significantly.

bigyaz

That still doesn't support your blanket assertion that "student loans don't make things less expensive, they make them more expensive."

Troy Morris

I apologize for getting up in arms about this, but goddamn. Tuition hikes are fundamentally ridiculous when you look at the privatization of tuition funding. I absolutely hate the current climate of borrow to learn at variable rates. Staford loans just aren't funded well enough and many students, myself included, needed to go to private loaners.

Also, as a side note, the UW's Athletic Program's 54.1 million dollar budget is paid for 97% by ticket sales, alumni donations and other self-generating means. The 3% that comes from the UW itself is for Women's Scholarships.

YAY!

Troy Morris

What doesn't support that assertion?

By definition, a loan makes things more expensive... I'm failing to see the argument here.

2/3 of all school costs for undergrads are funded by student loans at an average rate of 6.8% interest.

The average length of time to repay the average loan makes it so much that the loan costs wind up doubling.

So yeah, the blanket assertion is pretty damn well documented. If $2,000 is a 28% increase, we can damn well expect students at UW to wind up paying about 4-5 grand more by the end of their loan period.

Again, go ahead and check with the NCES and then come back your blanket "nuh-uh" assertions.

bigyaz

Financial aid is not limited to loans, so point #1 is, uh, pointless.

Jeremy

I love your point 1--it's so old school (i.e., last year). Yes, the price has gone up, but you can totally borrow to pay it, so it's still affordable!