Opinion: Column
Martin’s initiative a bad deal for out of staters
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Also by Patrick McEwen:
- Understanding nuclear issues facing our future (November 4, 2009)
- SSFC reps should all be appointed (October 20, 2009)
- Non-tech students want a degree? Take calculus first (October 6, 2009)
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to Student Segregated Fees (September 30, 2009)
- Students, please be realistic: Health care reform has costs (September 16, 2009)
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Chancellor Biddy Martin’s new Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, unveiled last Tuesday to students, is designed to improve student services, access to core classes and increase the amount of need-based aid offered to
From the perspective of an in-state student, there really isn’t too much to complain about. Sure, no one ever likes paying more money for something, but assuming the Madison Initiative delivers as promised, it will be a small price to pay. The primary reason why there should be no complaints from
Inevitably, there will be some students who might decide increasing quality isn’t worth the cost. However, in-state students always have the option to attend another UW System school. If UW-Madison falls back to the pack in terms of quality, that isn’t good for anyone.
The tuition increase is unlikely to radically affect the future decision-making of top in-state high school students. The number of comparable schools charging a similar tuition for
The initiative, however, presents a much different situation for students from beyond Wisconsin’s borders, especially when considering the implications for the decision-making process of the best potential future students. For those of us not lucky enough to be from
Biddy and Co. are banking on the fact after the above-average tuition increases, our out-of-state tuition will still be on the lower end of the spectrum in comparison to our higher education competitors to continue to lure top students from across the country to
There are plenty of students who don’t qualify for much financial aid, but for whom money is still a consideration. The $3,000 increase might not seem like enough to significantly affect the decision-making of out-of-state students, but it can certainly be enough to tip the scales in favor of staying in their home state for a slightly less prestigious degree or choosing one of our peer institutions. A significant number of our peer institutions are able to tempt top non-residents with merit-based scholarships that close the tuition difference.
Frankly, the UW’s merit-based scholarship opportunities for prospective non-Wisconsinites are scarce and those that do exist don’t manage to offset a very significant amount of the cost of attendance. A quick browsing of the
Failure to continue to attract top non-Wisconsin students hurts us in several ways. Top professors want to teach top students, better students do better research, better classmates challenge students who do end up going here and, while they’re crude measures of true quality, declining incoming student profiles hurt our rankings. Being surrounded by better peers improves the quality of the education and the prestige of the degree, in short, the same goals as the Madison Initiative.
Now, I could be totally wrong and the profile of our out-of-state students might not be affected. There isn’t a good enough source of hard data to truly back up an argument either way, but if one had to guess, the decision-making of top out-of-state students is more sensitive to small changes in price than the administration seems to think and, without an effort to increase our offerings of merit based scholarships, the standing of the average incoming students will be hurt. The extent might not be significant or measurable, but it will happen because I know that if tuition had been $3,000 a year more for out-of-state students when I was making my college decision, this is one Badger who would be a Nittany Lion.
Patrick McEwen (mcewen@wisc.edu) is a sophomore majoring in nuclear engineering.
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“but assuming the Madison Initiative delivers as promised, it will be a small price to pay” That’s a pretty big assumption you’re making. And it is a significant price to pay for those of us who won’t see any benefit from it.
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Amen to this commentary - as a father of an out-of-state (Kansas) 2009 freshman, I was alarmed to receive the Chancellor’s email. Call it what you wish but a near 10% tuition increase for out of staters is a real blow to recruiting. My daughter loves the school - so we will bear the cost but I agree the financial help/scholarships/grants she is being offered is virtually non-existent relative to the other schools that ranged all the way up to a full ride. UW was the single lowest to offer in financial help. Fortunately, WE feel it still offers her the best education.
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The number of out-of-state students here on UW merit-based scholarships is miniscule. Peruse the list of scholarships UW offers and they are overwhemlingly for in-state students. The vast majority of out-of-state students come here because their parents went here, they want a quality education away from home or (for the shallow ones) because of our party school reputation. The parent group will come here regardless. The group looking for quality will still find us cheaper than Michigan, Virginia or UNC. As for the group looking to party, they might end up choosing to head off to Arizona State or Indiana, but frankly, I think we can do without them.
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Sometimes people like things better when they’re more expensive, more exclusive. Think Mercedes Benz, Coach, 3-star Michelin restaurant, Rolex, North Face… status symbols.
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except if you’re from Minnesota. You still pay Twin-Cities tuition regardless of UW’s increase.
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It was a great financial hardship to send my son, who is the son, grandson & great-grandson of UW graduates, to UW, but I’d told him when he was young that if he wanted to attend UW I’d find a way. Unfortunately, out-of-state tuition more than doubled before he started.
PS. I hope that illegal aliens don’t get the resident tuition denied my son, when all 8 of his great-grandparents graduated from Wisconsin high schools, as did his mother and father, as did three of his grandparents - the other was from IL and got a Football scholarship - GO BADGERS!
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Your suppositions of Wisconsin residents being unaffected is nonsense. It relies on the perception of “something for nothing”. It promulgates the falsehood that underlies marxism and abets moronic assertions such as “I believe in wealth redistribution.” by Barrack Hussein Obama and the “free lunch” crowd. The actions of one marxist emboldens others, as Biddy Martin is demonstrating. They attack the out of state students financially today. Tomorrow they come for the Wisconsin residents. They always do. It is the old “divide and conquer” bureaucrats game.
You can either take direct action to confront and stop them or you will politely pay for your lack of action.