In 1998, I wrote a little article advocating that MIT abolish tuition, on the grounds that Harvard would eventually become so rich that they would have to abolish tuition or fight the IRS and explain why they weren’t simply an investment fund that ran a profit-making university on the side as a way to escape paying tax on investment returns. The consequence of Harvard eliminating tuition would be that M.I.T. would only be able to attract those students who had been rejected by Harvard and the rest of the Ivies. By eliminating tuition early, M.I.T. would capture the attention of super rich dot-commers and get enough donations to eliminate tuition.
What happened? M.I.T. raised tuition, Harvard and the Ivies did too, and the rich techies gave their money to Africans. Then Harvard began to eliminate fees for poor families. Harvard’s new definition of poor extends up to $180,000/year in income. A poor family won’t have to pay more than 10 percent of its income to send a proto-snob to Harvard. Home equity won’t be counted toward family wealth anymore either.
Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/education/11harvard.html
This is funny. I remember back in High School a guy in the grade ahead of me got accepted to Princeton. I recall congratulating him and his Dad at some school picnic and I distinctly remember his Dad’s words.
“It’s wonderful that he got in, now we have to figure out a way to pay for it all.”
I think back then, $18,000 (1/10 $180,000) was the going tuition.
They’ll never eliminate tuition because if they did they would have to get rid of legacy and alumni would be in revolt. Furthermore Harvard and all the Ivies and prep schools have to balance the desire to get youths from all quarters, while making sure that they have access to the elite. Part of the idea is that you bring in poor kids so that they can develop relationships with the rich and work their way into the elite. If the admissions system became purely merit-based, the rich would not get in and the poor would be networking among the poor. That doesn’t really further Harvard’s objectives much…