Friday, February 25, 2011
Carnegie Mellon raises tuition
Post Gazette: "Carnegie Mellon University is raising tuition by 4 percent for incoming students this fall and by 3 percent for returning students, school officials announced today.
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8 comments:
I frankly was surprised when I saw this article. I recall last year the astounding opposition to the raises in tuition and taxes, but now this is the first I hear of it. Does anyone have any idea why the student body is not in an uproar? Maybe the because the release of this information is happening around mid-terms...tell the students when they're too busy to complain about it. It's unfortunate that they are continuing to raise the tuition, and I feel like this is only going to get worse year after year...
the more tuition i raised the more unnecessary i feel it is. in recent years the cost of many things has gone down because of the aching economy. therefore i have trouble understanding why the universities could justify raising tuition again besides possible a greed which is very un-ethical. the other part of this argument is when does it just become too much . their is so much to deal with in paying for college and so many students leave their education with a lifetime worth of debt. this being said eventually when will it be not worth it , when will it just be too much, you really have to wonder when the bubble is going to burst.
So many people are already struggling to keep up with their current tuition; it is a shame that it is being raised even more. Although Carnegie gives aid to its students, from what I have observed, the amount given to each student is hardly substantial. With this raise, I wonder if the amount of students accepted will actually come to this school once the tuition is raised. I wonder the same thing as Ariel; if this wasn't announced right before midterms, would there be an uproar?
I believe what Ariel is referring to is the late 2009 "Fair Share Tax" which was a proposed 1% tax on tuition dollars spent to go straight to the city instead. I personally felt it was an interesting approach to a budgetary issue and while everyone shot it down fast, I think people don't give Ravenstahl enough credit for being bold enough to propose the idea.
A tuition hike is pretty standard, and I can't remember ever reading about a tuition decrease at any point...Yale and other private institutions were looking at a 4% increase last year while CMU only got hit by a 2.8% hike.
Like Ariel, I was also surprised when I read about this yesterday. Why have I not heard about this? While the university is not hiding this information from me, it's certainly not announcing it. I have the right to know and should have been directly informed. More than anything, I want to know why this is justified. Why does the tuition need to be raised that much? I understand that running a University is expensive, but at the same time I can't help but feel that I'm paying far too much to be here. The university may give financial aid to half of its students, but it's not enough. The government seems to think that I can pay for 80% of my education and Carnegie Mellon believes them. The only way it is possible at all for me is to take out $40,000 in loans every year that I'm here. It's disgusting. Ok, I'm done ranting about this now!!!
We haven't heard about this because no one was informed. All of this decision making and voting by school officials was done behind closed doors. Some have questioned why the student body hasn't been kept more informed about this. I think it's hard to say. I mean, of course we want to spend less money... So I think the student body would unanimously vote against increasing tuition. That being said, the economic climate has been in turmoil, I'm sure giving isn't fully recovered.
I've heard some passionate things from some of my peers, but I don't see anyone transferring. And CMU's prestige hasn't lowered at all, people are still going to want to come here. And also, from what I've seen, CMU actually does give a substantial amount of financial aid to its students.
As much as we all hate tuition increases we all know they happen. I agree with Charles that Carnegie Mellon has a reputation and they charge for us to have it when we leave. I may hate that it costs so much, but I know what I'm paying for. What I disagree with is all the fees and mandatory purchases. Like the freshmen meal plan. I have the lowest one I can get for my housing option and I still don't use all my blocks. This really bothers me because I was raised never to waste anything, and because I'm charged for them weather I use them or not I constantly feel like I'm wasting money on food I can't eat.
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