MU tuition up 3.5%

[Cheeks]

Start with a decade-long tuition freeze.   Minimum.

Are we demanding freezes of all salaries as well?  Removal of some programs? No new buildings? 

[Cheeks]

We got the letter as well...one more year for him.  My daughter’s Xavier acceptance this past weekend offered bigger scholarship, lower tuition (not by much)...the game they all play.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Start with a decade-long tuition freeze.   Minimum.   

That’s not a good idea for a number of reasons.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I recently went into a restaurant wearing a Marquette shirt, and the hostess asked if I went there.  She told me she and some friends had recently applied and gotten in and received scholarships, but the cost was still out of reach with a sticker price over 50k.  Honestly, I couldn't believe it and had to look it up.  I was stunned. 

Even with programs and aid, they are pricing themselves out for people.  The young lady I was speaking with told me she was going to IU, but seemed much more like she wanted to talk about Marquette.  It's a shame really.

Marquette’s been a higher cost option for people than the public universities for decades. Yet enrollment is generally been fine.

[Eldon]

Not 100% accurate on a number of levels. First schools very much work on cost containment.

Second the marketplace doesn’t support unlimited borrowing. Very few borrow more than Stafford maximums.  So the idea that students will borrow whatever they need regardless doesn’t really hold true. They are smarter consumers than that.

Third students compare discounted offers. Competition still works to keep costs contained. That includes competition from public universities.

I’m not saying student indebtedness isn’t a problem. It is. But it isn’t just about cheap loans. Because those loans are a huge reason people can access higher education in the first place.

There are other discussions to be had about how financial aid programs have changed over the past 30 years, how state governments support higher education, an industry obsessed with poor measures of quality, and how our society views the personal versus communal benefits of education.  But those are large, complex problems that our society really isn’t ready for.

+1

[Eldon]

We got the letter as well...one more year for him.  My daughter’s Xavier acceptance this past weekend offered bigger scholarship, lower tuition (not by much)...the game they all play.

BigEastDad?

But seriously, if you don't mind sharing, what made you/your daughter look into Xavier, given that you all live in CA?

[Not A Serious Person]

This thread implies MU’s tuition is out of line with other private schools.

They are not.

[#UnleashSean]

My wife reminds me regularly that I have to ramp down my anti-Badger rhetoric so that our kids don't rule that school out and want to go to Marquette.

That or we need to start terminal degrees and get teaching gigs somewhere. Or become janitors.

Could go my route of go to UW. Hate the crap out of their basketball, then do masters at mu.

[Cheeks]

BigEastDad?

But seriously, if you don't mind sharing, what made you/your daughter look into Xavier, given that you all live in CA?

She desires to go to film school.  To produce, direct, write, etc.  The top film schools (UCLA, USC, CHAPMAN, NYU) are in LA or NYC.  From a practical matter she applied to XU, DePaul and a few other film schools since the top ones have less than a 10% acceptance rate. Those other schools are up and coming, but geography away from the studios and production jobs have been a challenge for them. She is very good student, and so far 1 for 1 on acceptances, but no doubt rejections are coming.  She knows my wife and I are leaving California soon, so that may have factored in as well.  Will see how it shakes out as the other schools reveal their decisions and she chooses what to do.

[jsglow]

This thread implies MU’s tuition is out of line with other private schools.

They are not.

Word.

And while the cost of higher education has outpaced inflation and that's a problem that needs a solution, many folks are willing to fork over $40k for a new car.  My dad's 1976 Olds Cutlass was $4800, about what my tuition was as a MU Frosh a couple years later.  And scholarships were far more selective back in the day.

[Cheeks]

This thread implies MU’s tuition is out of line with other private schools.

They are not.

What happens when public education is “free” for everyone?

[jficke13]

Marquette’s been a higher cost option for people than the public universities for decades. Yet enrollment is generally been fine.

Does transferring the burden of crippling student loans onto a population who isn't engaging in economically rational decision making fit the mission of the university? Does maximizing revenue, playing games with sticker prices and discounts, and after all that still saddling students with a mortgage-worth of nondischargeable debt simply because enrollment hasn't dropped and therefore demand must be there fit with the university's mission?

[Galway Eagle]

What happens when public education is “free” for everyone?

The tran in Milwaukee was free for a year yet people still drove and paid for busses. There's a segment out there for everyone.

[jficke13]

This thread implies MU’s tuition is out of line with other private schools.

They are not.

Or it implies that some people foresee an unsustainable trajectory in the pricing of higher education as an industry.

[mu_hilltopper]

Are we demanding freezes of all salaries as well?  Removal of some programs? No new buildings? 

Yes.   Do what any other business does when revenues are flat.   Prioritize and optimize.

[#UnleashSean]

The tran in Milwaukee was free for a year yet people still drove and paid for busses. There's a segment out there for everyone.

The tram is all but useless though.

[Coleman]

Didn't mean that aspect. Meant, what do you cut? How do you maintain the same level of education and amenities, and have a decade-long tuition freeze.

The answer is you don't maintain the amenities.

[forgetful]

The answer is you don't maintain the amenities.

Then students won't come. It is well understood that students prioritize amenities over other aspects. They are willing to pay for those amenities.

Yes.   Do what any other business does when revenues are flat.   Prioritize and optimize.

Then faculty quit and go to industry. They are already working at a massive discount compared to private industry, and they would be more sought after and competitive than peers in private industry.

Also, businesses either raise prices to increase revenue, or make budget cuts if that cannot happen. The open market says that revenues are not flat, they can increase, because of demand.

I could argue that professional sports tickets are absurd. So they should put a mandatory 10-year freeze on sports tickets and TV packages. They simply can balance that by a mandatory freeze on all wages.

[buckchuckler]

Then students won't come. It is well understood that students prioritize amenities over other aspects. They are willing to pay for those amenities.

Then faculty quit and go to industry. They are already working at a massive discount compared to private industry, and they would be more sought after and competitive than peers in private industry.

Also, businesses either raise prices to increase revenue, or make budget cuts if that cannot happen. The open market says that revenues are not flat, they can increase, because of demand.

I could argue that professional sports tickets are absurd. So they should put a mandatory 10-year freeze on sports tickets and TV packages. They simply can balance that by a mandatory freeze on all wages.

Do you really believe those things are similar in any way?

[jsglow]

While rationalization and cost containment are essential and in order (remember the MU layoffs and program consolidations in August?), no university I'm aware of has successfully 'cost contained' themselves into financial success.  What absolutely kills a university (and many, many more are going to die in the next 25 years) is when kids stop attending.

I think many were rightly critical last summer when the university leadership seemingly finally conceded that the projected 2500 annual class size was an unrealistic pipe dream and began to adjust accordingly but you simply cannot successfully go on a full blown austerity program and not lose sufficient luster to avoid the downward spiral.  Honestly, Marquette has been fairly proactive and is positioned as well as can be expected given the modern climate.

[mu_hilltopper]

Then students won't come. It is well understood that students prioritize amenities over other aspects. They are willing to pay for those amenities.

Then faculty quit and go to industry. They are already working at a massive discount compared to private industry, and they would be more sought after and competitive than peers in private industry.

Also, businesses either raise prices to increase revenue, or make budget cuts if that cannot happen. The open market says that revenues are not flat, they can increase, because of demand.

I could argue that professional sports tickets are absurd. So they should put a mandatory 10-year freeze on sports tickets and TV packages. They simply can balance that by a mandatory freeze on all wages.

Not to be combative, but I really do believe this: As tuition continues to outstrip inflation and the value of a tuition investment in MU (and all privates / high priced education) decreases, the customer base drops to zero over the long term. 

MU's recent cuts and very high acceptance rates seem to be canaries in that coal mine.   

So .. no tuition freeze?  Ok.  I think there's an asteroid coming.   How can it be dealt with?

[Billy Hoyle]

We got the letter as well...one more year for him.  My daughter’s Xavier acceptance this past weekend offered bigger scholarship, lower tuition (not by much)...the game they all play.

my brother-in-law played some peer institutions off one another to get a higher aid package.  MU was one of them (he leveraged Saint Louis with them and got a higher aid package from SLU). He ended up at American after they kept upping their aid package to beat out George Washington. But still, he only got about 50% of his overall costs paid since scholarships rarely cover room and board.

Unless my nephew can get a significant scholarship (trying for a LAX scholarship) MU will not be an option, nor will any private school. Even with the normal aid packages, a private school is still more expensive than in-state tuition and many top-tier state schools with comparable levels of education. MU is not in danger of shutting down like some small schools have but I can foresee difficulty recruiting students, especially as the potential student gets smaller with birth rates dropping.

[Billy Hoyle]

I think many were rightly critical last summer when the university leadership seemingly finally conceded that the projected 2500 annual class size was an unrealistic pipe dream and began to adjust accordingly but you simply cannot successfully go on a full blown austerity program and not lose sufficient luster to avoid the downward spiral.  Honestly, Marquette has been fairly proactive and is positioned as well as can be expected given the modern climate.

that's ridiculous. My class was around 1400, I know post-Final Four there was a cap at 1800. But, tuition-driven institutions like MU are trying to increase enrollment as they see every potential student as a revenue generator. The result will be a lower quality of the student body and the quality of education. It will also hurt the school as attrition will increase. Law schools have been paying for this strategy. Valpo is in its final year of existence because they were trying to increase numbers and admitting unqualified students. The same will happen at undergrad institutions.

[Cheeks]

The tran in Milwaukee was free for a year yet people still drove and paid for busses. There's a segment out there for everyone.

Eventually those segments don’t make a big enough market to sustain itself.  Not without subsidies, an a private school isn’t getting much of those from taxpayers.

[Galway Eagle]

Eventually those segments don’t make a big enough market to sustain itself.  Not without subsidies, an a private school isn’t getting much of those from taxpayers.

Ok let me put it differently. Public High school is included in taxes and all the good private schools are doing just dandy. Yeah the crappy ones have closed, which in college scenario would be a good thing as it's over saturated anyways.

There's 600 Christian Universities in the US. I would wager that we are in the top 10% at least which, in my opinion, puts us in a category where we'll stick in the "sustainable zone". As long as we stay there, we can pick up the kids who would have otherwise gone to a school below us that risks closing. No different than What's been happening at Christian High Schools.