Many applicants to the most selective university programs share high grades, high test scores, solid recommendations and generous doses of community service and volunteer activities. Yet, if they want to set themselves apart from the pool of exceptional students, a significant research experience in STEM or the social sciences helps.
Ralph Nader, consumer advocate and a graduate of Harvard’s Law School and Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and outspoken conservative who lost his bid for the Senate in 2016, ran with 3 others for positions on Harvard’s Board of Overseers, the college’s second highest governing body, under the banner: “Free Harvard, Fair Harvard.”
The cost of attending a college or university keeps rising without an apparent limit year in and year out.
To give a sense of the relentless rise, since the early 1980’s tuition has increased over 1000% while the consumer price index (CPI) has risen a relative paltry 240%. From a slightly different perspective, in 1970 the percentage of the average household income it took to pay for tuition in a four-year college was 16%; by 2010 it was 36%. As a consequence of the rising costs, students are taking on debt as never before.
As applications surged into the UC System, Janet Napolitano, the UC System president, announced a plan to raise UC tuition at a 5% annual clip over the next five years.
The tuition hike is scheduled for the 2015-2016 term, raising tuition by $612, and will take tuition from the current $12,192 to $15,563 in 2019-2020. Out of state tuition would rise to $36,828 next year and ascend to $44,766 by 2019-2020.
The UC proposal breaks with the 4-year budget deal that has annually increased state funding in return for a tuition freeze. State funding has increased 5% in each of the past two years.
Napolitano has several reasons for the proposed tuition increase and believes the tuition hike is essential to maintaining the quality of a UC education.
