Clarkhoward Home

Mon-Fri 1-4pm ET
Stations near you | help

Video Minute Archives
Daily Audio Archives
Rip-off Alerts
Call of the Week

Today's Show Notes
Previous Show Notes
Clark's Greatest Hits
Free and Cheap

Ask Team Clark
Call 10am-7pm ET
(404) 892-8227

Member Center
Blogs
Newsletters
Message boards
Meet the Team

Appearances
Books
Photos
TV
Talk to Clark 1-4pm ET:
(877) 87-CLARK or
(404) 872-0750

Advertisement
Ask Clark  Looking for something on the site? Search for it here!  Also see Clark's Greatest Hits
help

Ivy League schools introduce sliding-scale tuition

We've had a train wreck in higher education with the cost of tuition going up way beyond the rate of inflation. The increases have been extraordinary because colleges are usually semi-closed institutions that are not affected by capitalism. But now even wealthy families can't always afford college for their children. So Harvard and other elite schools have developed new sliding scales for tuition based on family income. Harvard's income cutoff is $180K/year, which would cover 95 percent of all families in the United States. Families won't be expected to pay more than 10 percent of their income regardless of overall tuition costs. The bulk of the costs will be paid by the school's huge endowment funds.

The top 5 percent of Americans will still have to pay big bucks to go to school, but the idea is that top schools shouldn't be just for the filthy rich. Princeton, Penn, Swarthmore, Dartmouth and Duke are also doing these sliding scale plans. It used to be that you couldn't go to an elite school without scholarships. The only alternative was to borrow oneself into oblivion. We've had calls from people with more than $100K in student loan debt, which is an incredible handcuff as your start your professional life. Also, many of the traditional scholarships were red light/green light based on your income. This new model is more like having a rheostat in your home that gently adjusts between the two extremes.

Unfortunately, Clark won't be able to answer any questions submitted via commenting. If you have a question, please try posting it to our message boards.

Add your comment

Security Image * Please enter the code shown at left
what's this?

There are no comments yet. Be the first to post one!


Advertisement


This week's poll
The high cost of jet fuel has a lot of people staying at home this summer instead of traveling. Is there a "staycation" in your immediate future?
Yes, I just can't afford a plane ticket and/or hotel room right now.
No, I've saved up all year just to get away for a bit.
Maybe, I have to wait and see how my finances pan out.
see previous polls


Advertisement