US universities - best quality at lowest cost

Generally the more in demand an item, the more expensive it is. So an Ivy League university ought to be pretty pricey. Not if you're Yale. The press release pasted below implies that most Australian students could get into Yale for around $2,000 to $5,000 per year and pay the fees by doing 7 hours of work around the campus. Sounds pretty attractive, and vaguely ominous for international education, one of Australia's biggest export industries.

Yale Cuts Costs for Families and Students

 

New Haven, Conn.—Yale University President Richard C. Levin announced today that Yale is reducing the average cost of sending a student to Yale College by over 50% for families with financial need.  This new policy would apply to all students returning to campus in the fall as well as entering freshmen.  This represents the largest increase in spending for financial aid in the University’s history.

 

The reduction in costs will be spread across a broad range of incomes.  Families with incomes below $120,000 will see their contributions cut by more than 50%, while most families with incomes between $120,000 and $200,000 will see cost reductions of 33% or more.

 

Families earning less than $60,000 annually will not make any contribution toward the cost of a child’s education, and families earning $60,000 to $120,000 will typically contribute from 1% to 10% of total family income.  The contribution of aided families earning above $120,000 will average 10% of income. 

 

Yale also is increasing the number of families who qualify for aid, eliminating the need for students to take loans, enhancing its grants to families with more than one child attending college, exempting the first $200,000 of family assets from the assessment of need, and increasing expense allowances for foreign students during school vacation periods.  Yale calculates financial aid by taking into consideration a family's total income and assets, family size and number of children in college, family medical bills, state of residence, and a number of other factors.

 

The combined changes will increase Yale’s financial aid budget by more than $24 million, to over $80 million annually.  Yale also announced that it would hold its increase in tuition, room, and board charges in 2008-2009 to the expected level of consumer price inflation, 2.2%.

 

“Yale should be a college of choice for the very best and brightest students from across America and around the world, regardless of financial circumstances.  We want all of our students to make the most of Yale – academically and beyond – without worrying about excessive work hours or debt.  Our new financial aid package makes this aspiration a reality,” said Levin.

 

Building on a Yale tradition

 

In 1966, Yale was the first private research university in the United States to establish need-blind admissions, where candidates are evaluated for admission without regard to financial need. Yale also committed at the same time to meet the full demonstrated financial need of every U.S. student who was admitted. Yale awards no merit scholarships and no athletic scholarships – all financial aid is based solely on demonstrated need. For over four decades, Yale has not wavered from this commitment. In 2001 it extended this policy to foreign students, and it has increased aid numerous times to reduce the financial burden of a Yale education. Three years ago, Yale exempted families with less than $45,000 in income from making a financial contribution to the cost of attendance.

 

As grants to families increase dramatically, students also will see the amount they are expected to contribute from their own earnings fall sharply, from the current rate of $4,400 to $2,500 per year.  Students may earn that amount by working on campus for about seven hours a week, eliminating the need to take loans or to work excessive hours.

 

Additionally, Yale will increase the adjustment for families with additional children attending college and add to the allowance already given to international students to help them with expenses when school closes for vacations.

 

To increase transparency, the University is building an online calculator to provide families with a way of estimating net cost of attendance. By this summer Yale will have a web tool for helping families make an initial estimate of their expected contributions.

 

Here are some examples:

 

Examples of Parental and Student Annual Contributions                                                                                                     Case A                                    Case B                             Case  C     Parents’ Income                                                          $60,000                               $90,000                                            $180,000   Parents’ Assets                                                              $100,000                           $150,000                                            $200,000   Parents’ Contribution                                                                                                 One child in college                                                                                                 New policy                                                         0                                       $2,950                                         $23,050                                                   Old policy                                                    $4,450                                    $12,550                                       $38,150                           Two children in college                                                   New policy                                                         0                                       $1,500                                     $11,650                                                   Old policy                                                    $2,750                                     $7,350                                         $22,300   Student’s Contribution                                                                         New policy                                                 $2,500                                      $2,500                                          $2,500                                                   Old policy                                                    $4,400                                 $4,400                                     $4,400