Latest tuition increase exceeds NESCAC peers

Author: Derek Schlickeisen

At $46,910, Middlebury will have the second-highest price tag among New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) schools for the academic year beginning this fall. The higher costs come as the College scrambles to build an endowment comparable to its recent rise in national rankings, while also keeping its promise to replace many student loans with grants.

The 2007-2008 comprehensive fee, just below Wesleyan University's, exceeds the NESCAC average by $552. More significantly, however, it also places the cost of attending the College at an average $1,348 more than the pricetag of its top four competitors: Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst and Bowdoin Colleges.

"The schools with which we most compete now for students are better endowed on a student-by-student basis," said President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz. "The College has risen in the rankings, and so the overlap group has changed quite dramatically over the last fifteen years."

Dean of Admissions Bob Clagett explained that Middlebury's smaller endowment on a per-student basis is part of the motivation behind the College's anticipated five-year, $500 million capital campaign. Middlebury's per-student endowment now stands at $322,000, less than half that enjoyed by both Williams and Amherst. Since endowments produce a significant portion of colleges' annual operating budgets, better-endowed institutions enjoy greater financial support for programs like student aid.

Clagett said that the size of the College's need-based financial aid packages will expand as the cost of a Middlebury education rises, helping to attract qualified students for whom those costs could be prohibitive. He added, however, that institutions with larger endowments can more easily support expanded student aid.

"Top colleges all meet the full need of any student who is admitted, so there shouldn't be dramatic differences between our packages," said Clagett. "But institutions that are even better-endowed than Middlebury can afford to have an even lower loan expectation than Middlebury."

Liebowitz said that the Strategic Plan approved by the Board of Trustees last May places a long-term emphasis on reducing the loan portion of financial aid packages - a move that follows suit with prominent Ivy League schools like Harvard and Princeton, whose multi-billion dollar endowments have supported the switch to full grants.

"We have a sort of bifurcated student body now, where many students on aid get a very large grant - that's why the average grant is about $28,000 - while others pay the full tuition," said Liebowitz. "We would love to have more socioeconomic diversity, and it's a goal that our Strategic Plan talked about, but it's going to take time and a lot of resources."

Forty-five percent of students currently attending the College receive some form of financial aid.

In working to replace loans with grants, the College hopes not only to better compete with its peer institutions for top students, but also to give those students more financial freedom after graduation.

"The other driving force is that we want to make sure that the level of debt that students incur here doesn't have an impact on long-term vocational plans," said Clagett. "And our average debts [in recent years] were getting to the point where they could have had that impact."

Beginning with the class of 2011, financial aid packages will reduce the average debt held by graduating students from $18,000 to $12,000.

"For an almost $200,000 education over four years, going $12,000 into debt is not a bad deal, said Clagett. "And at that level it should not be having any impact on post-graduate plans."

Accepted students in town on Monday for one of two "Campus Preview" days said they were trying not to let concerns about Middlebury's high price tag influence their final college decision.

"I think considering how much tuition at top colleges is, you can't really worry about the difference a few hundred dollars more a year makes," said Erin Jackson, a potential matriculate. "There are so many more important factors."