Guide to Education Grants

Another Student Loan Resource:
Right now every undergraduate student pays the same amount of tuition. Students might receive differing amounts of financial aid, but the tuition rate is the same. However, according to a March 26, 2007 article written by Elizabeth Redden titled, “Paying by the Program” that appeared in Inside Higher Ed, “The one-student, one-rate model is somewhat silently slipping away at many public universities nationwide, as institutions increasingly turn toward differential (read: higher) tuition rates for students pursuing specific majors, often those with higher costs of operation.”

So, if a student chooses a program, in other words, a major that has a higher rate of operations, i.e. needs what is deemed as extra money to run, that student may be made to pay more for college tuition. Redden cited this example in her article:

“At its March meeting, the Board of Regents at Arizona State University approved a $250 per semester tuition differential for upperclassmen in the journalism school – which, as of 2008 will be housed in a new, downtown Phoenix facility. At the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the Board of Regents will consider two differential tuition policies, one for the School of Business and the other for the College of Engineering, next month. To the east, UW Milwaukee — now in its third year of differential tuition for undergraduates studying the arts, engineering, business and nursing — just added differential tuition for its architecture students this academic year, and is set for a promised review of its tuition policy this fall. Iowa State University also added differential tuition for upperclassmen in the College of Engineering just this year.”

The Rationale Behind Differential Tuition

State colleges are public institutions that receive money from the state and federal government to subsidize programs for college students. However, administrators say that state support is declining and that they must look for new and creative ways to fund college programs and keep their schools competitive. Redden reported, “Declining state support, administrators say, has forced them to raise more funds from the students who stand to directly benefit. Program or college-specific revenue streams, they argue, enable them to make continuous improvements and maintain competitive programs despite the fiscal straits their institutions may face.”

Could These New Rules Hurt Certain Programs?

The problem that some administrators and financial aid experts see with these types of tuition hikes on major programs is that it could discourage students from low-income families from pursuing certain majors. In her article, Redden reported, “‘I do worry about equity; I worry about that a lot. Should students really have the opportunity to pay a certain fee and be able to use it for English or use it for history or use it for business?’ asks Richard E. Sorensen, immediate past chair of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business and dean of Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business. Business schools nationwide have increasingly moved toward the differential tuition model in the past five years, especially, he says, as salary demands for business professors have skyrocketed. With no major rebound in public investment on the horizon, the trend, he thinks, will continue. But not all schools will follow suit, he predicts. ‘I still think there are going to be a lot of schools that don’t do it because they don’t think it’s right. Tuition is tuition is tuition.’”

Whatever major you choose, NextStudent can help you fund your college education. If you want to know more about strategies that help make college affordable, talk to the education financial advisors at NextStudent. They have all the information and advice you need on student loans. Check out www.nextstudent.com.

Be sure to tune in next Tuesday for my next blog about this week in student loans.

Student Loan Girl

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | digg

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at 10:51 am and is filed under Student Loans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.