In her freshman year, Nickie Pendolpi ’04 received a Presidential Scholarship that covered 33 percent of the cost of her attendance at Fairfield. Now that same scholarship of $10,000 covers just 28 percent, leaving her and her family responsible for that extra five percent.
“This year was tough financially, especially with my sister now attending college as well,” said Pendolpi. “Luckily, because of my sister, I now have a grant. I just wished that the scholarship went up every year in proportion to the tuition increase.”
Every year as the cost of tuition at Fairfield gets higher, financial aid struggles to keep up. Coupled with a poor economy, students say that paying for tuition, fees and room and board is getting harder.
The problem is not restricted to Fairfield, whose costs went up 7.2 percent this year alone.
”Many college-bound students and their families are affected by the struggling economy,” Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board told The Boston Globe. ”As the cost of college rises, the availability of student aid becomes increasingly critical to a student’s ability to attend college and pursue academic goals.”
According to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the tuition component of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has risen by 8 percent per year from 1979 to 2001. If the trend continues, children born today will face college costs three to four times greater than current prices.
Dr. Kathryn Nantz, a professor of economics at Fairfield, said that “if college costs increase faster than the CPI, that could cause a financial burden. But there are lots of reasons why the tuition increased by so much, so quickly. Fairfield is just trying to keep up to date and competitive.”
Apparently, Fairfield has been successful with that. The Princeton Review, in its list of the 345 best colleges, recently ranked Fairfield University fifteenth in the category of “Best Academic Bang for your Buck.”
Alexander Scott, senior associate director of admissions, said, “In comparison to other colleges we are priced competitively. We aren’t the most expensive nor least, but our level of tuition is expected for cost of a quality private education.”
Undergraduate tuition is $24,100 for this academic year at Fairfield, up from last year’s $22,430. Residence hall room and board is $8,560; townhouse rental is $6,640; and an apartment village rental is $7,200. The overall package of tuition, fees, and residence hall room and board represents an increase to full-time students of 7.2 percent.
Fairfield’s financial assistance is provided in the form of scholarships, grants, student loans and campus employment. Both need-based and merit-based tuition scholarships are awarded.
Need-based aid is reviewed on a year-to-year basis, but merit-based are offered only to academically talented students as entering freshmen.
Approximately 160 merit-based scholarships are given out per year, said Scott. Although students argue that the money given out should increase every year, administrators note that they are conscious of budget constraints and can’t increase it.
This year an additional $1.6 million was issued in financial aid, a 10 percent increase that brings total University student aid to $17.6 million.
But some students who receive financial aid have been unaffected by this increase.
“My grants have remained constant since freshman year,” said Chris Karch, ’04. “It would have been nice if they increased every year since tuition has.”
Other students who receive scholarships for the full cost of tuition are benefiting from the additional funds.
“As tuition increases my Fairfield scholarships keep up with the rising costs,” said Melissa Thomas. “So luckily my financial aid has been pretty consistent, my percentages haven’t changed.”
Fairfield isn’t alone in dealing with such issues.
Tuition and fees rose 9.6 percent at public colleges and 5.8 percent at private colleges, according to the nonprofit College Board. Four-year private schools in New England led the nation in college total costs, with tuition and fees averaging $23,289 a year.
With room and board, books and fees, the yearly cost of a four-year private college in New England is $33,860, the highest in the country, according to the College Board and Fairfield fits right in at $33,335.
“If FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) determines that your family could only pay for a certain percentage of tuition costs, it would only makes sense that your aid would increase, if nothing else changed but the cost of tuition,” said Dora DeNardo, ’04.
Leave a Reply