Why You Want Your Kids To Study Hard

[Tugg Speedman]

The "large endowment" schools are making college very affordable.  Most of the other Ivies and other "large endowment" schools have similar policies.

The cheapest way to pay for college?  Study really hard get into a large endowment schools and it does not cost that much.

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Harvard College admits 1,990
Class of 2019 selected from record pool of 37,307 applicants
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/04/harvard-college-admits-1990/

At 5 p.m. on March 31, Harvard College sent admission notifications to 1,990 of the record 37,307 students who had applied for admission to the Class of 2019.

Harvard requires no contribution from families with annual incomes below $65,000, and asks an average of 10 percent of income from the majority of families receiving financial aid. Even families with incomes greater than $150,000 are eligible for aid depending on particular circumstances, such as multiple children in college or unusual medical or other essential expenses. “Based on current projections, more than half of Harvard students will receive need-based aid, and their families will pay on average only $12,000 annually,” said Donahue.

Stanford Offers Admission to 2,144 Students, Expands Financial Aid
Welcome to the Class of 2019.
http://patch.com/california/paloalto/stanford-offers-admission-2144-students-expands-financial-aid

Stanford University has offered admission to 2,144 students, including 742 applicants who were accepted last December through the early action program, the Office of Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aidannounced today.

Under the new policy, Stanford will expect no parental contribution toward tuition from parents with annual incomes below $125,000 – previously $100,000 – and typical assets. And there will be zero parental contribution toward tuition, room or board for parents with annual incomes below $65,000 – previously $60,000 – and typical assets.

[Tugg Speedman]

What are the "large endowment schools? (June 30, 2013)

Rank    Institution     (millions)
1    Harvard University     32,334
2    Yale University     20,780
3    The University of Texas System     20,448
4    Stanford University     18,689
5    Princeton University     18,200
6    Massachusetts Institute of Technology     11,006
7    The Texas A&M University System   8,732
8    University of Michigan   8,382
9    Columbia University     8,198
10    Northwestern University   7,883
11    University of Pennsylvania     7,741
12    University of Notre Dame   6,856
13    University of Chicago   6,669
14    University of California   6,377
15    Duke University     6,041
16    Emory University     5,816
17    Washington University in St. Louis     5,652
18    Cornell University     5,272
19    University of Virginia     5,167
20    Rice University     4,837
21    University of Southern California     3,868
22    Dartmouth College   3,734
23    Vanderbilt University   3,673
24    The Ohio State University   3,149
25    Johns Hopkins University   2,987
26    University of Pittsburgh   2,976
27    The Pennsylvania State University   2,957
28    New York University   2,949
29   University of Minnesota    2,757
30    Brown University    2,670
31    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill   2,381
32    University of Washington   2,347
33    Purdue University   2,182
34    University of Richmond    2,023
35    University of Wisconsin Foundation   2,020
36    Williams College   1,997
37    University of Illinois & Foundation    1,926
38    California Institute of Technology   1,850
39    Amherst College   1,824
40    Pomona College   1,823
41    Boston College     1,809
42    Rockefeller University   1,772
43    Indiana University & Foundation    1,735
44    University of Rochester    1,730
45    Georgia Institute of Technology   1,715
46    Case Western Reserve University   1,679
47    Michigan State University   1,637
48    Swarthmore College    1,635
49    University of Toronto   1,593
50    Smith College   1,557

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Somewhat related, something I thought was interesting.  Yale is currently building two new residential halls, so they can accept another 200 students per class or 800 total students beginning in September 2017.

[Tugg Speedman]

I thought I throw this in this thread because of (what I thought) was an amazing statistic!! (highlighted below)

Note, I don't think this stat is unique to NU.  Most "elite" schools are seeing similar drops in acceptance rates.  Thank the common app, and huge tuition breaks from "large endowment" schools as the reason so many applications are flooding in (causing acceptance rates to plummet)


http://dailynorthwestern.com/2015/03/25/campus/northwestern-university-acceptance-rate-class-of-2019/

Northwestern’s admissions rate hit a record low again this year with only 13 percent of applicants accepted.

The acceptance rate has dropped for the last six consecutive years. Ten years ago, 31 percent of applicants were admitted.

NU accepted 4,187 students for the class of 2019 out of the 32,124 that applied in both the early decision and regular decision rounds. Last year, NU received 33,688 applications and admitted 4,403 students.

The final acceptance rate for the class of 2018 was 13.1 percent. Though it was initially reported as 12.9 percent, admission numbers fluctuate until the final numbers come out during Fall Quarter, Michael Mills, associate provost for University enrollment, said in an email.

In December, the University admitted 1,012 students through early decision, comprising roughly 49 percent of the class.

This year, the accepted pool included a smaller percentage of students — 92.2 percent — in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating classes. Last year, 93.2 percent of accepted students were in the top 10 percent.

Students admitted through the regular decision round were notified Monday and have until May 1 to decide whether they will enroll at NU.

[Tugg Speedman]

Finally, as noted above, Harvard received 37,000 applications (5.3% acceptance rate). Standford received 42,400 applications (5.05% acceptance rate, lowest ever anywhere)

What school received the most applications?  UCLA at 112,000, the most ever for any school.

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-receives-record-number-of-applications-for-2015

[forgetful]

Studying hard is not going to cut it.  Admission decisions are ridiculously arbitrary.

The average total cost of attendance at Harvard is still over $100k.

[Tugg Speedman]

Stanford Extends Free Tuition to More Middle-Class Students
Class of 2019 undergraduates with annual family income below $125,000 will qualify

http://www.wsj.com/articles/stanford-extends-free-tuition-to-more-middle-class-students-1428087257?mod=WSJ_hp_EditorsPicks


By
Douglas Belkin And
Melissa Korn
April 3, 2015 2:54 p.m. ET
0 COMMENTS

Some middle-class students fortunate enough to have been accepted to Stanford University this year just got $180,000 worth of more good news: Their tuition is being waived.

Any undergraduate admitted to the class of 2019 who comes from a family with an annual income below $125,000 won’t have to pay tuition, the school announced last week. Previously, the cutoff for free tuition was $100,000 in family income.

Students from families with incomes below $65,000 also will receive free room and board, and families earning up to about $225,000 also may qualify for financial assistance, especially if more than one family member is enrolled in college, according to the school. Tuition at Stanford runs $45,729 a year, and room and board is another $14,107.

“Our highest priority is that Stanford remain affordable and accessible to the most talented students, regardless of their financial circumstances,” Provost John Etchemendy said in a statement. “Our generous financial aid program accomplishes that, and these enhancements will help even more families, including those in the middle class, afford Stanford without going into debt.”

The financial-aid calculation also takes into account family assets. Households with an adjusted net worth of more than $300,000 above and beyond retirement savings generally aren’t eligible for aid.

The move is part of a trend among colleges to earmark aid for students who traditionally haven’t qualified for help but are graduating with increasing debt as college costs continue to rise. The average debt of a borrower was $33,050 last year, up from $15,313 in 1993 in inflation-adjusted dollars.

The state of California started a scholarship program this academic year to help students from families who earn as much as $150,000 a year. Pennsylvania offers $2,000 in aid for residents whose families earn up to $110,000 a year, and Minnesota is kicking in up to $5,000 for families who earn up to $120,000.

Nationally, published tuition and fees increased by 10% at private, nonprofit colleges in the past five years and by 17% at public schools, according to the College Board. Dangling extra cash also can help sway those families who are beginning to question the value of a high-price undergraduate education.

Private universities with flush endowments started the trend. Six years ago, Harvard University increased grants for students whose families earned $65,000 to $150,000 and had assets to match such earnings, saying costs wouldn’t top 10% of their income. (Those who made less than $65,000 already weren’t expected to contribute anything.)

Harvard’s endowment is the largest in the country at $36 billion; Stanford is the fourth largest at $21 billion. Last year, Stanford raised $928 million, according to the Council for Aid to Education.

“This very large segment of the population was being squeezed out,” Bill Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s dean of admissions and financial aid, said last year. “At $180,000, you can be broke when it comes to paying for college.”

Nationally, nearly three quarters of undergraduates now leave school with loans that average about $30,000. At Stanford, just 23% of undergraduates leave with debt. The hard part remains getting in: Stanford accepted 2,144 of 42,487 applicants for the 2015-16 school.

Stanford announced this March 27.