Monday, October 4, 2010

The Inelasticity of College.



Recently there was a study on which colleges were the most expensive in the United States of America. They found Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York topping off the list with Annual costs of $57,556, Tuition and fees of $43,566, and Room and board of $14,000. Columbia University in New york, New york came in a close second with $7,000 less, Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York came in third with $7,000 less than Sarah Lawrence College, Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, which came in fourth, was $7,000 less than Sarah Lawrence, and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee in fifth place with $8,000 less than Sarah Lawrence.

Even though these colleges have costly prices, it doesn't seem to have affected the enrollment for these colleges. They have found that these prices aren't an affect on the enrollment because of the high rate of graduating high school seniors and private universities trying to keep cost low. Although these are reasons for why enrollment not decreasing, they still don't have a big affect on lowering the cost.

In the last year private colleges average cost of tuition and fees has risen 4.5%, but institutional grant aid did raise 6.8% this year. As well as, 80% of all students receive aid and 30% receive merit awards to help pay for college. These students may feel the sticker price for the college is very expensive, but after seeing all the aid that America's schools generously give out, it calms's them down and gives them hope for attending these expensive colleges.

These most expensive schools may help students with their costs, but then why lis the college as so expensive?

2 comments:

Jasmine (Jia) Huang said...

A huge misconception/ mistake that I see students make is not applying to privates they want just becaue its costly. For most colleges, as you've pointed out, are very generous with assisting those who need aid. Mostly for lower/low income students who have fairly good grades, as long as you can get into the school, privates pay for a majority of the tuition. I find this very nice b/c it helps to provide education for those who may not have been able to aford it before.
Saying this, ive found that not all private colleges provide generous aids to specific students. Most obvious would be the students coming from higher economicly stable families= some privates dont have merit scholarship, only need based aid provided.
For those students, they may be able to afford the full tuition, but i still think that they deserve to be rewarded for their achievements.

ACatiggay said...

I think that the costliness to colleges being private is as Jasmine says a misconception...yes it has bigger numbers, but the economic downturn actually makes private colleges flourish since many people want to finish in 4 years and are guaranteed that in a private (maybe originally more expensive) school. HOwever, due to the economy, more state and public schools are suffering due to the lack of funds/support and end up costing families just as much for 5 - 6 years in school due to less classes/cutbacks and crap like that. My philosophy is, if you can get the same education or better at a private college, it helps to pay the extra cost up front and then fluorish from it in the end while those in Public, less expensive schools are still 2 years away from being finished (at 4 years!). Also, private colleges do offer many scholarships that it is almost impossible not to get any financial aid.