Generally the more in demand an item, the more expensive it is. So an Ivy League university ought to be pretty pricey. Not if you’re Yale. The press release pasted below implies that most Australian students could get into Yale for around $2,000 to $5,000 per year and pay the fees by doing 7 hours of work around the campus. Sounds pretty attractive, and vaguely ominous for international education, one of Australia’s biggest export industries.

Yale Cuts Costs
for Families and Students

 

New
Haven, Conn.—Yale
University President Richard C. Levin announced today that Yale is reducing
the average cost of sending a student to Yale College by over 50% for
families with financial need.  This new policy would apply to all students
returning to campus in the fall as well as entering freshmen.  This
represents the largest increase in spending for financial aid in the
University’s history.

 

The
reduction in costs will be spread across a broad range of incomes.  Families
with incomes below $120,000 will see their contributions cut by more than
50%, while most families with incomes between $120,000 and $200,000 will see
cost reductions of 33% or more.

 

Families
earning less than $60,000 annually will not make any contribution toward the
cost of a child’s education, and families earning $60,000 to $120,000 will
typically contribute from 1% to 10% of total family income.  The
contribution of aided families earning above $120,000 will average 10% of
income. 

 

Yale also is
increasing the number of families who qualify for aid, eliminating the need
for students to take loans, enhancing its grants to families with more than
one child attending college, exempting the first $200,000 of family assets
from the assessment of need, and increasing expense allowances for foreign
students during school vacation periods.  Yale calculates financial aid by
taking into consideration a family’s total income and assets, family size
and number of children in college, family medical bills, state of residence,
and a number of other factors.

 

The combined
changes will increase Yale’s financial aid budget by more than $24 million,
to over $80 million annually.  Yale also announced that it would hold its
increase in tuition, room, and board charges in 2008-2009 to the expected
level of consumer price inflation, 2.2%.

 

“Yale should
be a college of choice for the very best and brightest students from across
America and around the world, regardless of financial circumstances.  We
want all of our students to make the most of Yale – academically and beyond
– without worrying about excessive work hours or debt.  Our new financial
aid package makes this aspiration a reality,” said Levin.

 

Building
on a Yale tradition

 

In 1966,
Yale was the first private research university in the United States to
establish need-blind admissions, where candidates are evaluated for
admission without regard to financial need. Yale also committed at the same
time to meet the full demonstrated financial need of every U.S. student who
was admitted. Yale awards no merit scholarships and no athletic scholarships
– all financial aid is based solely on demonstrated need. For over four
decades, Yale has not wavered from this commitment. In 2001 it extended this
policy to foreign students, and it has increased aid numerous times to
reduce the financial burden of a Yale education. Three years ago, Yale
exempted families with less than $45,000 in income from making a financial
contribution to the cost of attendance.

 

As grants to
families increase dramatically, students also will see the amount they are
expected to contribute from their own earnings fall sharply, from the
current rate of $4,400 to $2,500 per year.  Students may earn that amount by
working on campus for about seven hours a week, eliminating the need to take
loans or to work excessive hours.

 

Additionally, Yale will increase the adjustment for families with additional
children attending college and add to the allowance already given to
international students to help them with expenses when school closes for
vacations.

 

To increase
transparency, the University is building an online calculator to provide
families with a way of estimating net cost of attendance. By this summer
Yale will have a web tool for helping families make an initial estimate of
their expected contributions.

 

Here are
some examples:

 

Examples of Parental and Student Annual Contributions                                                                                                     Case A                                    Case B                             Case  C     Parents’ Income                                                          $60,000                               $90,000                                            $180,000   Parents’ Assets                                                              $100,000                           $150,000                                            $200,000   Parents’ Contribution                                                                                                 One child in college                                                                                                 New policy                                                         0                                       $2,950                                         $23,050                                                   Old policy                                                    $4,450                                    $12,550                                       $38,150                           Two children in college                                                   New policy                                                         0                                       $1,500                                     $11,650                                                   Old policy                                                    $2,750                                     $7,350                                         $22,300   Student’s Contribution                                                                         New policy                                                 $2,500                                      $2,500                                          $2,500                                                   Old policy                                                    $4,400                                 $4,400                                     $4,400