The Collegian

Issue date: 5/12/09 Section: Opinion

With economic times as tough as they are, the high price of a college education is weighing down on students everywhere. Even schools are having trouble keeping students enrolled. Students have started bargain hunting. Berea College in Kentucky has been making unmatched offers of free tuition. Because of tough times, the school is receiving more applications, and the resumés of students seeking admission are high caliber.

The question schools will now face as economic times have gone south is whether they want a higher quality of student by offering better deals, or more money from less gifted applicants. This is great for students seeking a good education at a reasonable price, and in the future we could see top schools competing to get the best students by offering the best financial deal.

Berea College offers all students free tuition. In exchange all 1,530 students work 10 hours a week or more through service or campus jobs over four years. Seventy-eight percent of students who are accepted choose to enroll, surpassing Harvard in terms of yield percentage. So how does the school stay in business? Eighty percent of the school's costs are paid for by the school's endowment, and the remaining 20 percent by donations.

The recession forced Berea to lay off 30 employees, but the school remains commited to free tuition. This has paid dividends recently as the number of applications has increased this year, while expensive schools nationwide have seen declines. The quality of the students has increased with higher SAT scores and a solid GPAs.

Case in point, a parent called the school, saying her daughter would no longer be enrolling at Berea next fall because Stanford University offered to pay four years of tuition, room, board and a stipend for travel. They could not refuse such an offer from Stanford, but such is the quality of applicants they are receiving now.

In one sense this can improve the prestige as better numbers directly raises the status of the school in the eyes of both prospects as well as employers and grad schools. Plus, Berea has received a lot of attention from students who are also being courted by Stanford, building notoriety. This might be the blueprint for small schools looking to increase prestige, but then again maybe since not every school can consistently rely on endowment for 80 percent of operating costs. However, if the economy does not improve students will continue to look at cost over name recognition.

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