Maggie Dougherty
When I was initially considering Wooster as a potential school, the yearly cost of attendance was listed as $60,000. Even with my scholarship award, I couldn’t afford it. However, I really wanted to come here, so I asked the Financial Aid Office if they could come up with any more money to make it feasible for my family. They were able to offer me an extra $2,000 per year, and just this small amount made enough of a difference in my ability to pay that I ended up enrolling.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know to expect costs to be continually rising once I got here. The tuition rose by $2,000 after both my freshman and sophomore years, bringing the total cost of attendance up to $64,000 per year before financial aid. Now, once again, tuition is increasing — this time by $2,500 for a total cost of al- most $66,750 per year. However, at the same time, merit scholarships do not rise to match the price increase.
As I said before, the $2,000 of financial aid I was awarded was enough to make Wooster a possibility for me; if I were to redo the calculations I made before coming to Wooster knowing the actual amount I would be paying by the end, I wouldn’t be here today.
In a news article titled “C.O.W. increases the cost of tuition” published in a recent edition of The Voice, a member of the Financial Aid Office was quoted as saying, “We under- stand that families have unexpected circumstances that change their ability to pay tuition. When those circumstances arise, like a job loss, or higher than typical medical expenses, we urge families to reach out to the Financial Aid Office. We can walk them through the process and explain what documentation we might need to review their request.” Here’s the thing, though: my “unexpected circumstance in my ability to pay tuition” is not a family circumstance; it is the fact that the tuition keeps rising.
But now, after everything that I have invested in Wooster, transferring just doesn’t seem like a possibility. So, what else can we do, except keep taking out loans to cover the rising costs?
It feels like we are trapped and held hostage: paying is barely a possibility, but for many of us, transferring isn’t a real option either.
If Wooster truly cares about student welfare, they should institute a tuition guarantee to ensure that current students do not face unplanned cost hikes. That way, when you increase tuition for incoming students, they know what they are getting into. For example, one of the other schools I considered attending before deciding on Wooster describes their tuition lock very simply: “Four Years, One Price, Zero Worries.” Zero worries? Can you imagine?? This would mean that students could actually calculate their costs coming into Wooster for all four years, because you don’t have tuition increasing without an equal increase in financial aid.If you budget for one amount, and think your family can just make it work, then the $2,000 increase each year makes a major difference.
I know to the Financial Aid Office, $2,000 doesn’t seem like a major difference because it is always framed as a percent increase. I remember an email after my sophomore year, touting that the cost increase was the smallest percent increase ever! Well, duh: if you keep the additional amount the same ($2,000) and divide it by a larger tuition cost as compared to the tuition of the year be- fore, it will inevitably be smaller. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a $2,000 increase for students. Percent changes are meaningless to students who are struggling to pay our costs of attendance, so please stop telling me that it’s only a two percent increase, orlessthanafourpercentincrease.The bottom line for me is that I budgeted for an education that cost $60,000 per year, and to my family and others like it, $7,000 a year is a big difference. And, no, offering me unsubsidized loans to cover the difference does not help; loans are not financial aid.
I get that Wooster needs to keep increasing costs — trust me, I do. But if they plan to increase prices, the school either needs to be extremely transpar- ent with students coming into the Col- lege or else guarantee them that their costs will remain the same throughout their time here.