None of it was for tuition.
The 21-year-old is on a four-year, full-tuition scholarship, won on the strength of her high school test scores. And she qualifies for the maximum federal Pell Grant — $5,730 — for low-income students.
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
Think Tuition Is Soaring? Try Room And Board
None of it was for tuition.
The 21-year-old is on a four-year, full-tuition scholarship, won on the strength of her high school test scores. And she qualifies for the maximum federal Pell Grant — $5,730 — for low-income students.
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4 comments:
While I understand the difficulties with paying the extremely high tuitions put forward by universities, I don't necessarily think that this article is telling the full story. I personally have scanned through ours as well as several other universities' financial statements, and the story seems to be the same across the board. Income isn't coming from tuition and room and board. Income is coming from donors, alumni, philanthropy, and the international student body (as they do not qualify for American federal financial aid).
Additionally, speaking from personal experience, as CMU requires freshmen to live on campus, I can admit that my dorm living situation was the number one most negative part of my first-year experience. Having put my deposit in late, I was placed in what I would argue is one of the worst dorms on campus. When the dorm you live in is drastically different than what your friends are living in, and yet you pay near the same amount for your room, the situation really comes to light in terms of frustration.
Why is it that colleges have the need to charge their students the same amount for room and board as someone who is living on their own in America? The students are already paying to go to the college- they are trying to get an education so they can get a higher paying job so that they can actually afford what the average American pays for housing. But at the current moment of course they can’t pay it- they are students. And their parents shouldn’t have to pay it because that’s basically making them pay double of that they already pay (if they pay the average). Of course, it’s great when the parents can help with housing, but that they have to pay it on top of whatever tuition they can pay is ridiculous. Everything about paying for college is so ridiculous and expensive. I don't understand how it could have gotten so bad that everyone who goes to college leaves with a crippling amount of debt. There are so many jokes making fun of how much college is in hopes of showing the government, or people in charge, how bad it is, but it all falls on deaf ears.
This article pretty much sums up the whole reason why I am moving off campus next year and wanted to live off campus as a freshman. For $600 a month, I can get a place to live that is five times as large as a dorm, and it comes with a private bathroom, and a kitchen; these little things are not normal for most dorms and when you don’t have them, you never realize how much you missed them. The price of living on campus is so ridiculously high that I don’t understand why anyone would bother to live on campus. The only thing that could possibly be worth the money is the distance from campus, but a five minute walk is not worth $5,000. I could easily walk from my apartment 15 minutes from campus and live nicely rather than be stuck in the little shithole dorms on campus. Also, the fact that CMU treats dorms like summer camp is disgusting. I’m an adult; I don’t need to be babysat on how to make friends. If people don’t already know the basic skills of communication, there is no hope left for them.
As Brennan pointed out, freshman at CMU are required to live on campus. So not only are the prices rising, you are required to dish out $7,280 per year just to have a room (not including board). One shared room in a university building is currently costing me $200+ per month than it will cost me to live off campus next year. Why are students required to live on campus in the first year? Why are students required to have a meal plan? I understand that these things help greatly with adjusting to living on your own and living at school. But does the cost of living need to be so high? Not only are the rooms expensive, the meal plan is designed in such a way that if you don’t spend all of the blocks in a period, you don’t carry that balance onwards, and you don’t get any unspent money back at the end of the year. I never use all of my blocks- so what does the university do with the extra money?
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