Washington U. in St. Louis Touts Their Reduction in Net Financial Aid

So, it seems.

I just received my February edition of their magazine. (http://magazine.wustl.edu/2014/february/Pages/default.aspx) I started reading the cover article, “Creating Paths of Opportunity” (http://magazine.wustl.edu/2014/February/Pages/Creating-Paths-of-Opportunity.aspx ).  It notes that Chancellor Wrighton just returned from a White House Summit on Higher Education on how to do more to “…attract and retain students of all backgrounds…”  (Washington U. already puts a lot of effort in retention.  To see how go to How Competition Leads to “Content Deflation” in One Anecdote or A Tale Out of School – A Case Study in Higher Education.)

The article explains that Chancellor Wrighton’s shared his three pronged approach to attendees.  But here is the part of the article that stood out to me.  On the second page of the article is a nice graph with the caption,

“Wash. U.’s average financial aid package for students with need nearly doubled over the last decade.”

The graph shows that the amount increased from $16,000 to $30,000.  If that is in nominal dollars then the incease of $14,000 is $4,000 less than the increase in the total cost of attending.  (I got the tuition, room board and fees numbers from http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/24811.aspx and http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/2783.aspx .)

I have posted before that only the “sticker price” of higher education has increased.  (New York Times Writes That Average Cost of College Steady Over a Decade)  So it appears that Washington University may be trying to claim patriotic and philanthropic credit for what was probably just a business decision that they made for all students: increase the sticker price since  “…Some segment of the public is delighted to know that it costs a large number to go there, but their own son or daughter has received a scholarship…”  (See the above post for the quote by Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges.)  I doubt that Washington U. is the only school doing this.  It will  probably become common, now that the President has talked about a national need.