College Tuition Rates Skyrocket:

Will New York be at the Forefront of Free Tuition?

New York State just became the first U.S. state to offer free tuition at two- and four-year
colleges on April 9th. The new program will begin this fall and will be eligible to students from
families making up to $100,000 a year, a number that will increase to $125,000 by the third year
of the programs enactment. Although the New York State government has taken huge strides
towards free public college tuition across the nation, rising rates of college tuition and debt have
become alarming.

For the 2016-2017 school year, the average cost of tuition and fees was $33,480 at private
colleges across the country according to the College Board. The least expensive private schools
of the 2016-2017 academic year are located in Utah, Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi with
the lowest price tag being $5,300 a year. The most expensive are in New York, California,
Connecticut and Massachusetts with $55,056 a year, according to usnews.com.

According to collegeboard.org, the average cost to attend a public four-year NYS school in 2016
was $7,707 compared to $4,948 in 2004. Comparable states included West Virginia, North
Carolina and Nebraska. Larger states like California were upwards of $9,346 a year compared to
an even lower starting point in 2004 at $4,195.

The average cost to attend a private four-year institution in NYS in the 2015-2016 academic year
was $25,596, according to collegecalc.org. The site also lists Columbia University as the most
expensive private school in the nation at an average annual tuition of $50,526.

Ithaca College, established in 1892, started out as a music conservatory and has since become a
well-known private school in New York for its established programs in Physical Therapy,
Communications, Music Education and Musical Theater Programs.
Along with its steady increase in enrollment over the years, Ithaca has also seen a significant
increase in tuition. Going from nearly $1,500 in 1970 to an average of nearly $43,000 a year
today. Its safe to say our parents were not ki
dding when they were shocked at the average college tuition price of school today, said Allison
Ritting, a rising sophomore at IC.

Ritting, an occupational therapy major, reflected on her experiences as a prospective student

going through the process of choosing a college. When asked about some of the biggest factors
she considered, Ritting said price helped to narrow down her choices, with her top three being
Ithaca College, James Madison University, and University of Pittsburgh.

I had to rule out the ones that were like out of our price range because we didnt have
indispensable income, she said. And thats like why I chose a private school over a public
school like Pitt especially because they give out more financial aid.
Ithaca Colleges Director of Student Financial Services, Lisa Hoskey offered some insight into
the financial aid process.

I dont think that debt is unreasonable for an education of this caliber but I think that students
have to be very thoughtful about how far to take that, Hoskey said. It sounds over simplistic
but if you borrow enough thats the cost of car, Im fine with that because people borrow
$30,000 for a car and pay it off in six years. If you borrow the cost of a mortgage, then you really
need to be thoughtful if thats what you want to be doing.

Ritting said both her and her parents contribute to paying college tuition bills but she is already
aware she will be leaving IC with debt. When she got her financial aid package and was not
satisfied, Ritting went to ICs Office of Financial Services and said she had a positive
experience.

Theres like an appealing process where you have to submit an appeal and we did that to like
increase the amount of aid, she said. It was sort of like we got the original financial aid
package and then we looked at it and had to ask them if there were any additional grants or
awards they could give me to make it more affordable.

A fraternal twin, Rittings sister attends school at Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate
New York. She said her sister went through a similar process with a financial aid appeal and got
even more money than Allison received. Ritting said her package was significantly more
affordable for the family.

As a current college student, Ritting said she understands just how difficult it is for students to
pay for college. She said she thinks it often drives prospective students away from choosing a
college at all.

There was a pretty substantial amount of students at my high school that opted to do like a
vocational school instead of like the traditional college education, she said. Its weird because,
I dont know, I feel like the less education you have the less youre valued in the work force.

Ritting added that its unfortunate that more often than not, cost makes college unattainable to
students in lower income families.

She said Its kind of interesting that like its been socially constructed that youre supposed to
go to college; everyone kind of just pays the money and goes with it because theyre just trying
to get the degree but also like no one ever really questions if its necessary to pay that much
money.

Ritting said its unreasonable for colleges to expect their students to pay this much money when
its not attainable for so many people.

Its almost like an industry. Thats kind of messed up, She said. I mean I think Ithacas given
me a lot of good opportunities but I dont necessarily know if its worth the amount of like
financial pressure.

In a survey conducted through Fayetteville-Manlius High School, a top 50 NYS public high
school according to niche.com, 60 students were asked about their financial options when it
comes to paying college tuition.

Of those students, over 80 percent were juniors or seniors with 16 percent being sophomores.
When asked what type of home based on income they came from, 72 percent answered a
medium income home with 23 percent from high income and less than 5 percent from low
income homes. The biggest factor for these prospective college students when choosing a college
was major or course of study when picking from a list of location, price, name recognition,
sports or other.
The survey went on to talk about financial means and how these high school students feel about
their financial options when it comes to college. Students were asked on a scale of 1-6 how big
of a factor price is when searching for the right college and with 6 being the biggest factor, the
majority of students surveyed said around 4 or 5. Those same students also seemed to be
satisfied with their economic options for college with the majority of students indicating they
were satisfied or just okay with their options.

When asked to provide their top three college choices, out of the 162 options the survey
received, 59 percent of those schools given were New York State schools. Of those NYS
schools, 62 percent were private schools with the other 38 percent being public or community
colleges.

In a survey conducted at Ithaca College, SUNY University at Buffalo and Cornell University,
current college students like Ritting were asked to reflect on their process in choosing their
college as well as their financial assistance throughout their college experience.

Of the 69 total responses, 70 percent of the students who took the survey were Freshmen in
college and 85 percent considered themselves white or Caucasian. About 63 percent of the
students said they come from a medium income home.
Nearly 50 percent indicated that Major or Course of Study was the biggest factor for them when
choosing a college. College students, like prospective students, picked 4 or 5 on a 6-point scale
when asked how big of a factor price was in their college decision. Of the students who
participated that had a financial aid package, about 83 percent, 46 percent of those students said
their package was predominantly need-based as opposed to merit-based which was 38 percent.

Differing from prospective college students, current college students said they were not very
satisfied with their financial options in college. Thirty-eight percent of students chose Its Just
Ok while 27 percent chose Not Very Satisfied with Satisfied receiving 20 percent.

Rising sophomore at IC, Taylor Fairweather, said she has no concept of where her money is
going. Coming in initially as an Exploratory student, she said she chose Ithaca for the feel and
for the varying opportunities in her interests. When it comes to finances however, Fairweather
threw that responsibility to her parents.

I dont really know because when I was looking here I was like they have what I want to do and
I was basically like I dont care how much it costs, this is where I want my dream to kind of
hatch, she said. My parents kind of made it more of a big deal than I would for price.

She said her final decision was between Ithaca and Pace University. In order to make her
decision, Fairweather gaged how much financial aid she received from each school.

I relied on financial aidI feel like Pace gave me a little bit more financial aid but still it just
didnt feel like the right school so I had to come here even though like we had to make some
adjustments, she said.
Fairweather is a first generation college student in her family and originally comes from
Bellingham, MA. She said her older brother opted not to go to college and instead, began
working almost immediately.

She said Maybe if he went to school he would have been more stablewe have the upper hand
as college students when it comes to like going into the work force.

At her high school in Massachusetts, Fairweather said about 17 percent of students at her school
graduate and then go into the service or chose not to attend a traditional college. When it comes
to her own college experience, Fairweather said she feels pretty confident she will get a job after
her experience at IC.

I mean with all these opportunities I like hope I get into a stable job that can provide for me,
she said.

Even though Fairweather exudes confidence when it comes to job stability, she said she had no
idea where the money she is paying towards tuition is going.

Its kind of annoying because like if it goes towards unnecessary things like catering or events
we host I just feel like thats not important, she said. If youre gonna spend 4 or 6 years here,
you should have a say in like where your tuition money is going and like where it could be useful
and where it isnt.

Frustrated with the lack of options at ICs dining halls, Fairweather also said that college
students should not have to pay as much money as they are currently paying. She said its not
worth the $42,000 a year for what IC students are getting back in return.

If you want everyone to have a higher education, you should make college more affordable to
everyone not just people with like high income.

Cornell Universitys website on financial aid contains a lot of informative cost breakdowns.
According to finaid.cornell.com, New York State residents pay significantly less for a college
education at Cornell than non-NYS residents. On the website the cost is broken down by what
college at the university you are enrolled in: Architecture, Art and Planning, Arts and Sciences,
Engineering, Hotel Administration, Agriculture and Life Sciences, Human Ecology, and
Industrial and Labor Relations.
According to Cornell Universitys Institutional Research and Planning page on their school
website, the university has seen an increase in applications since the early 1990s. Due to an
increase in the percentage of the population that chooses to go to college, many colleges have
seen a rise in the number of applications they receive.

Cornell received nearly 45,000 applications in 2016 and accepted less than 7,000 undergraduate
students that same year, with an acceptance rate of 14.1 percent.

The University has seen a steady increase in tuition since 1992, from less than $20,000 a year to
over $50,000, according to the Universitys Research web-page.

The Cornell site gives students resources like aid package examples, a financial aid calculator,
and information on financial aid initiatives.

The financial aid website provided for SUNY Buffalo students did not provide as much
information as Cornells site. The site provides projected tuition costs for in-state and out-of-
state residents as well as room and board and other foreseen fees. The website also gives
information on how to fill out a FAFSA and what types of financial aid are offered at the school.

When searching the Ithaca College website for financial aid information, there is an entire page
with information on financial aid and billing. The page includes information on fees, payments,
deadlines, overall tuition and financial aid options. They provide a Guide to Understanding
Your Bill as well as Financial Aid 101 which goes into what options are out there as far as
getting the aid necessary to get through college.

The page does not however, have any information on where the money paid towards tuition
goes. Ithaca College, SUNY University at Buffalo and Cornell University do not provide a
tuition breakdown on their website. Lisa Hoskey, Director of the Office of Student Financial
Services at Ithaca College said the tuition breakdown is non-essential.

Hoskey was tentative to get into the details of the tuition breakdown, but with her experience in
the financial field she said she feels that the school deals with its money responsibly.

Ive been doing this for a really long time, I actually started as a work study student at a
financial aid office, she said. Honestly, Ive worked in the state-side Ive worked on the private
side and I dont think that Ithaca College is irresponsible with how it manages things, I actually
think theyre pretty thoughtful about it.

She went on to talk about how ICs current President Tom Rochon has been diligent about
keeping the tuition rates and increases much less, maintaining less than a three percent increase
for the past several years. Yet, Ithacas high tuition rates bring into question where all of the
money goes.

Well I know what we charge, but if youre asking me to justify why we charge it, no, Hoskey
said. I know its really easy to say well if they cut tuition, itd be fine. Well we could cut
tuition but then at what point does the quality of your education suffer?

Hoskey went on to say how tangible things like the quality of residence halls or dining services
are often complained about on campus, but those are the things that directly tie back to how
much students have to pay.

She said I think that sometimes theres a perception that theres this hidden pot of money
somewhere, and Im pretty good at this and I havent found it.

Current Ithaca student, Allison Ritting, is unaware of where her money goes and while she was
satisfied with the financial help she received from the school, she said her opinion that tuition
prices at Ithaca are too high is unwavering.

I mean yeah its [the tuition breakdown] not really like necessarily shared with us like to a very
vague extent theyll say what it goes to but the actual breakdown I dont even know, she said.
Considering if theyre charging $42,000 per students thats gotta be going somewhere.

Although Hoskey has dealt with student financial services since she was a student herself, and it
seems as though there are a lot of educational options for students, Ritting said she has not seen
any solutions coming from the college in her time at IC.

I think its definitely very personalized that I was able to get help but I dont necessarily see the
that the college is like making efforts to make it more affordable universally, Ritting said.

Hoskey was also vocal about perspective students and parents perceptions of financial options,
specifically when it came to the new SUNY legislature to fund free-tuition programs for students
coming from low-income homes.
People need to read the fine print because its not nearly as oh its free for everybody, its not
nearly that clear, she said. Its not nearly as simple as its being portrayed on television.

She said to be wary of those programs because they only give you $1,000 after you take state
grants.

You are then limiting your geographic options because you are then committing for that
thousand dollars to live in New York State, Hoskey said.

When asked about the future of free tuition at Ithaca College, Hoskey remained negative about
Ithacas ability to do so.

If we were gonna say we would meet need for anybody under this income level, we simply
dont have the funding right now, she said. I would love to be able to have more money to give
out but I just dont.

Hoskey blamed this lack of funding in part on the colleges alumni. Ithaca College has a
relatively low endowment, 289 million in 2016, in comparison to Cornell University which had
an endowment of 5.758 billion that same year.

If we really wanna make a change in affordability I think going forward in the long term were
gonna need students to participate as alumni, Hoskey said. But then how do you do that if
youre paying off loans?