Originally Posted by JonLaw
Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
The other thing is that just within the past 3-4 years (since '08), a fair number of top-notch private schools have reneged on a pledge to graduate students "loan-free" and to freeze tuition for matriculants, to slow tuition increases to no more than 150% of inflation... all those things that kept the increases somewhat in check.

I honestly missed this one. The reneging, that is. Any good articles on this lately?

Let me see what I can dig up for you.

I may need to use Wayback to find cached information to compare with current data-- because (naturally) many colleges have been curiously quiet about this type of change (as opposed to the press releases that accompanied the original promises 8-12 years ago). Funny, that. wink


Here is a pair of data-points on the subject, though it may not adequately reveal how determinations of 'need based' versus 'merit' aid have changed. It's shocking how few tier 1 and even tier 2 institutions even offer merit aid officially at this point. The other problem is that this fails to capture the point at which endowments crashed for private-not-for-profit institutions. But it's good data nonetheless.

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d11/tables/dt11_357.asp


This one gets at the "why" of some of this, and the notion that tuition increases are "price gouging" (well, they are, but maybe not quite in the way we think):

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d11/tables/dt11_366.asp

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d11/tables/dt11_370.asp

Wouldn't it be cool to know what THIS looked like from year to year:

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d11/tables/dt11_376.asp


Here's a glimpse at what I was referring to-- take a look at Private, not-for-profit 4y institutions and the percentage of loan aid-- the rate jumps almost 3% from '08 to '09, which is several times the rate of increase up to that point.

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d11/tables/dt11_354.asp

Of course, for a glimpse at part of the system which is most problematic, check out the loan rates under FOR-profit schools. Ai yi yi.

Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.