La Salle University cuts $40K+ tuition to $28K

[otis]

La Salle University announced it will reset its tuition from $40,400 to $28,800—a 29% reduction—in a major step to improve the affordability of an undergraduate college education.

Tuition for the 2017-18 academic year will return to what students paid in 2008, and the University will continue to offer generous scholarships and financial assistance to its students.

The initiative, known as An Affordable Path For All, builds on La Salle’s long-standing commitment to affordability. In addition to providing scholarships and financial assistance to 97 percent of students in 2015-16, the university was the only institution in the Philadelphia area to freeze tuition for the 2016-17 academic year.

see: http://www.lasalle.edu/blog/2016/09...nnounces-bold-new-move-tuition-affordability/

the Philadelphia Inquirer story:
http://www.philly.com/philly/educat...tuition_cut_caps_renaissance_at_La_Salle.html

 

[jetstorm]

La Salle University announced it will reset its tuition from $40,400 to $28,800—a 29% reduction—in a major step to improve the affordability of an undergraduate college education.

Tuition for the 2017-18 academic year will return to what students paid in 2008, and the University will continue to offer generous scholarships and financial assistance to its students.

The initiative, known as An Affordable Path For All, builds on La Salle’s long-standing commitment to affordability. In addition to providing scholarships and financial assistance to 97 percent of students in 2015-16, the university was the only institution in the Philadelphia area to freeze tuition for the 2016-17 academic year.

see: http://www.lasalle.edu/blog/2016/09...nnounces-bold-new-move-tuition-affordability/

the Philadelphia Inquirer story:
http://www.philly.com/philly/educat...tuition_cut_caps_renaissance_at_La_Salle.html

All that and a Sweet Sixteen!!

 

[beast of the east]

As I suspected, it's a move in response to declining enrollment and a subsequent operating deficit. With the school cutting aid to students in the form of grants and scholarships, most students will not realize anywhere close to a $12,000 savings.

Don't get me wrong - private universities, St. John's included, have sticker prices for tuition that are vastly overpriced, It's difficult to project a solid return on investment when students graduate with debt approaching $200,000. New grads with large loans will delay their first home purchase, opening retirement plans in their 20s (long advocated to be the most important savings decade of their lives), getting married, starting families, and saving for their own children's college education as they attempt to pay off college loans,

I would imagine that even room and board are profit centers for colleges, as many schools are building on campus dormitories designed for upperclassmen who typically move off campus. One of the most profitable investments are for those individuals who buy large homes and apartment buildings that rent primarily to college students. Rents are so vastly inflated and the conditions of dwellings are so poor that the resulting rental income is considerably more than residential housing would cost in those areas if they were renting to a single family. Colleges bristle at this notion, and are building enough dorms to guarantee 4 years of housing for students to increase their own revenue.

There is so much wrong with inflated private college costs that it's difficult to find LaSalle's move as laudable. It simply appears to be an attempt to stop the bleeding in terms of declining enrollment and subsequent loss of revenue.