Is a year at Vanderbilt worth $100,000? At a few dozen elite universities, the list price for tuition, room and board and other expenses is approaching six figures, writes Ron Lieber in the New York Times. Vanderbilt is up to $98,426 for engineering students -- if they don't receive financial aid. (At that price, it's no wonder protesters sitting in at the chancellor's office expected to be served Panera sandwiches.)
Also nearing $100,000 are New York University, Tufts, Brown, Yale, Wellesley, Penn, University of Chicago, USC, Harvey Mudd and Washington University in St. Louis.
Most students pay less, Lieber writes. The average sticker price this year was $56,190 at private, nonprofit four-year schools and $24,030 for in-state students at four-year public colleges, according to a College Board report.
Furthermore, many universities substantially discount prices for students from less-than-wealthy families and offer financial aid. Vanderbilt "announced that families with income of $150,000 or less would pay no tuition in most instances," he notes.
Saying that a college degree is a "ticket to the middle class," President Biden announced plans to reduce or erase federal student debt for tens of millions of borrowers, reports Michael D. Shear in the New York Times. Twenty-five million former college students would pay less, and four million would see their entire debts wiped out, if the plan withstands legal challenges.
It's an election-year ploy, writes Shear. Will it win votes? Many of the Times' readers commenting on Lieber's story point out that rising college costs are the real problem. Several cite the story about $100,000 college bills. Others say they paid their own college loans and want others to do the same.
Biden's new debt-relief plan “would stick taxpayers with bills for debts other people chose for their own financial advancement," said Neal McCluskey, the director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute.
“College degrees have become overpriced because colleges know that, at the end of the day, Uncle Sam and the taxpayers will pick up a big part of the tab for ridiculously high tuition, room and board," Bob Eitel of the Defense of Freedom Institute, told the Washington Examiner. “President Biden’s loan cancellation orgy has only made the problem worse. The system is totally broken.”
Speaking of something else that's totally broken, the Education Department's Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) revamp has been a disaster, writes AP's Nick Perry.
It was supposed to make it easier for students to apply for federal aid. Instead, it's such a mess that students can't find out how much aid they'll receive and colleges don't know who can afford to enroll.
“The rollout has been pure chaos and an absolute disaster,” said Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert. Fewer students are applying for aid. If that persists, he says, college enrollments will fall and some colleges could go under.