Comment by notyourday | Hacker News Reader

Comment by notyourday | Hacker News Reader

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Hispanic students for Southern and Western states pay out of state tuition unless they are resident of the same states that colleges are in. So TX university recruiting a Hispanic student from AZ is recruiting an out of state student that pays out of state fees.

Merit scholarships issued to international students are akin to mattress stores discounts - increase list price via fees and discount those fees not to mention that as a condition of college scholarship one agrees that all additional money he or she gets as scholarships obtained separately from a university or a college that money goes back into repaying the scholarship that was offered by a college.

So say that tuition is $30k a year, room and board is $20k a year and fees are $3k a year for a student from Poland ( for in state the rate is $20k/$12k/$3k - room and board is $12k because the school wants in state students to live on campus and it knows that the dorms are 400% more expensive than the off campus housing that the parents of the student would be able to easily find out). Merit scholarship ( 5, for all 679 international students but with that 5 the school says it offers merit scholarships across the board ) is 50% discount on tuition. So the international student now has to pay $15k+$20k+$3k to come to the school vs in state student with no merit scholarship paying $20+$12+$3k. Oh, look, we diversified and we got more money per student! And we also got the student to sign that should he or she get a scholarship from some other organization, the first 15k of it would go back to replenish the merit scholarship fund of the school.

Source: personal experience.

P.S. I cannot wait until the college system in the US collapses. It would be glorious to watch everyone who participated in a financial rape of 17-18 year olds and their families being financially ruined in their 40-60s.

P.P.S. Next time during the college administration all hands make administration answer why the college has different tuition rates for in state, out of state and international students and why it does not offer scholarships/grants/discounts uniformly to everyone.

> why the college has different tuition rates for in state, out of state and international students

Because if it is a public state university then the in-state tuition rates are subsidized by the state. The state legislature can also adjust these rates, set caps or minimums for in-state students, and enforce other rules as they see fit -- they're paying the bills, after all.

> why it does not offer scholarships/grants/discounts uniformly to everyone

My state did offer a grant to everyone -- a small one, but one nonetheless.

Outside of that, why would you offer grants or scholarships to folks who a) aren't eligible, and b) who aren't residents of your state or country? Why would Texas give money to someone who is going to go back to PA, or WA, or China after college? They have subsidized Unis in their state, and if they don't want to go there they can help subsidize the schools in a different state by paying the non-resident rate.

Why would you get access to a scholarship for, say, black students if you're not black?

That out-of-state and international tuition is higher than in-state isn't new, and arguably isn't the issue. The issue is that costs, for all parties, ramping up dramatically while the benefit of the degree (salaries) in the work place are diminishing.

> Because if it is a public state university then the in-state tuition rates are subsidized by the state. The state legislature can also adjust these rates, set caps or minimums for in-state students, and enforce other rules as they see fit -- they're paying the bills, after all.

GP's claim was that it is all recruiting is in the name of the diversity of the student body and future student demographics. That's trivially observably false.

Colleges and universities are concentrating their recruitment offers on the most profitable students, which are the international and out of state students because for every non-state student they get to charge more money.

That's why the TX university is interested in recruiting AZ students, rather than TX students: student with the same demographic from AZ will bring more revenue to TX university vs the TX student.

>GP's claim was that it is all recruiting is in the name of the diversity of the student body and future student demographics. That's trivially observably false.

>Colleges and universities are concentrating their recruitment offers on the most profitable students, which are the international and out of state students because for every non-state student they get to charge more money.

I work at a private university, our tuition is the same regardless where you come from. Nevertheless, we recruit heavily from domestic students and international students, each of which have special populations we incentivize to make a class more diverse, whether it be economically or ethnically.

You're welcome to believe what you want, and, certainly, in the divestment of the public interest in funding higher education, public schools are feeling the financial pinch and may be seeking out more students who pay the full rate, but private (not-for-profit) colleges and universities for the most part do not engage in such tactics.

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