Harvard And Yale Now Less Costly Than Public California Universities

Going to school at Harvard University is cheaper than attending a public university in California.

According to the Bay Area News Group, a "family of four -- married parents, a high-school senior and a 14-year-old child -- making $130,000 a year," with typical financial aid, would pay around $17,000 for tuition, room and board and other expenses if their child went to Harvard. However, if their child attended a Cal State, they would pay $24,000. Going to the University of California, Santa Cruz, would cost around $33,000; at UC Berkeley, it would be about $19,500.

Other Ivy League schools, including Yale University and Princeton University, offer similar financial scenarios.

"It does sort of put you in an awkward spot," Dean Kulju, financial-aid director of the 400,000-student Cal State system, said. Cal State has double their tuition since 2007, the Bay Area News Group reported.

California's public universities lost more than $1 billion in support from the state in a round of 2011-12 cuts. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) announced in December, another $300 million would unexpectedly be cut from higher education because revenues were coming in below projections.

Since 2009, public universities in the state have lost $2 billion and community colleges have had $695 million cut from their budgets.

According to the Government Accountability Office, both public universities throughout the country have increasingly relied on tuition for funding as states have dropped support.

Over the past three years, students have been holding protests in California against tuition hikes that have been as high as 32 percent in some cases.

Students are planning to demonstrate at the state capitol in Sacramento Monday, calling for a millionaire's tax to help fund public higher education.

Comments

[IPredictARiot]

12:22 PM on 06/23/2012

The costs cited here are dependent on how much FinAid a person gets - Harvard tends to give better aid to upper-middle class students who are considered by UC to be "too wealthy" to give aid to, which makes sense to me.

That said, it is absolutely true that the cost differences are narrowing in almost all cases. I left my CA home two years ago for grad school, despite thinking I would be a UC student every step of the way, because the tuition and living expenses at Duke were far better than anything I had in California. While UCSB or Cal would have been less expensive in tuition, once you added it all up, then yes, CA schools were *more* expensive.

Let's remember that UCs and CSUs were created to provide a free education for every Californian, and they were, up till Gov. Reagan.

Let's also remember that the current generation of baby boomers came through UCs when they were free or dirt cheap. They got their education courtesy of the Greatest Generation who paid higher taxes to ensure the future viability of California. And it worked - we created one of the strongest and most innovative work forces the earth had ever seen.

And then we stopped paying it forward. Sorry, mom and dad, but you guys took and forgot to give back. Prop 13, tax cuts, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Union....you experienced the ultimate generosity, and paid it back with the ultimate greediness.

[roadblock7]

10:24 PM on 04/05/2012

This is not news to me. I go to Yale for approximately $20,000 per year (which is tuition, room, and board). My brother goes to UCSB as an in-state student for $26,000 per year. When I applied for financial aid at UCLA and Berkeley, I was turned down and would have had to pay full tuition ($33,000) at each. Although applying for financial aid at Yale was not the easiest process, we were able to get a much more generous offer, with some wrangling.

Cost was not a major factor in my college decision, but it is a shame that California is losing out on top students who can not afford to pay. California universities are still excellent educational and research institutions, despite the budget cuts. Hopefully the threat of a large scale brain drain will influence politicians to lower costs and make college more affordable for all residents -- as was the original intention of the UC and CSU systems.

[IPredictARiot]

12:25 PM on 06/23/2012

In all fairness (and I know this because I chose between Yale, Duke, and UCSB 2 years ago), the living expenses in Santa Barbara are higher than New Haven. I'm curious as to the tuition difference sans housing/room/board? In my case, tuition was still significantly lower at UCSB. Is that the case for you and your brother?

[calicoerotica]

09:39 PM on 03/20/2012

We need more state colleges offering full educational opportunities online at greatly reduced costs, especially in this economy. If three colleges are using the same teacher, there is no excuse for charging 300-1000 dollars per credit hour. Our college system has become nothing more than a money making scam.

[ssattarz]

03:59 PM on 03/18/2012

This story is not a new or surprising one for many of us. Unfortunately, however, it's a reality that reflects a clear disconnect in understanding the positive correlation between equal access to higher education and the rate of social change and progress at all levels. I had the fortune of studying at and graduating from a UC, and my average annual tuition cost was $12,000 (excluding textbook fees, etc.), so I had a "better" chance of affording higher education compared to those who are currently studying at or hoping to attend a UC.

Unless and until systems/structures within government and academia are transformed in recognizing the true universal benefits of higher education, superficial notions of "power" and "wealth" may very likely yield destructive results.

"Higher education has given ample proof of its viability over the centuries and of its ability to change and to induce change and progress in society. Owing to the scope and pace of change, society has become increasingly knowledge-based so that higher learning and research now act as essential components of cultural, socio-economic and environmentally sustainable development of individuals, communities and nations. Higher education itself is confronted therefore with formidable challenges and must proceed to the most radical change and renewal it has ever been required to undertake, so that our society, which is currently undergoing a profound crisis of values, can transcend mere economic considerations and incorporate deeper dimensions of morality and spirituality" (UNESCO, World Declaration on Higher Education, 1998).

[Jesse Lynch]

10:29 AM on 03/18/2012

It's time we put our RIGHT to affordable education first!

Let's send a message to Congress that we are concerned and we want action now!

Support the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012. Learn more and sign the petition here:

http://signon.org/sign/support-the-student-loan

[IPredictARiot]

12:28 PM on 06/23/2012

Speaking as someone with a good amount of student debt (>$60k), I can't really support forgiveness. We each decided how to pay for our educations, and we knew the prices going in. I think higher education should return to the days where it was essentially free (you know, before the baby boomers got to be in charge), but a loan is a loan.

What I *DO* support is using the lowest possible interest rate available for student loans. If the Federal Reserve can lend at .25% interest to banks, which aren't the most stable things out there these days, then we can certainly find a way to lend to students at something like .5% or .75% interest.

Having an essentially interest-free loan for education would go a long ways toward the goal you're after, but it wouldn't punish someone for not taking out loans, etc.

Make it .75% interest, make it retroactive on all loans, and make it easy to get.

[MITKid]

04:11 PM on 03/15/2012

Harvard tuition: $55K a year. UC Berkeley $19K. No reasonable family of $130K income is going to get a

[MITKid]

04:09 PM on 03/15/2012

$15K/year for Harvard? Yeah right. Try putting those numbers into any FAFSA financial aid calculator. If you make $130K/yr and have a decent amount of family savings, well, you are gonna be paying at least doule UC costs: $40-45Ka year a harvard.

[sanfran55]

01:44 PM on 03/15/2012

Those numbers don't sound right - especially if you are an out of state student attending Harvard. Plus, how many students get into Harvard, anyway? Why they don't compare with other state schools with California?

[IPredictARiot]

12:17 PM on 06/23/2012

Harvard doesn't have an "in-state" or "out-of-state" tuition - those are usually only public schools that offer in-state breaks.

And Harvard rarely charges the full amount for attendance - most students pay only a fraction of the advertised tuition. That said, I think it's only a small minority of cases where Harvard actually is cheaper - I would assume that they give finAid to families in the low-six-figures (like the $130k example) when UC would probably consider that making plenty and not offer any scholarships.

[pepboi]

10:21 AM on 03/15/2012

I work with low-income first generation high school students on a daily basis, helping them with choosing their classes, choosing and applying for colleges, applying for financial aid, and helping them review their financial aid packages. Students below the poverty ceilings no longer get full rides to California public universities, both the CSUs and UCs, and haven't been for many years now. All 4 years at Harvard and Yale are free for a student who comes from a family making less than $60,000 a year and tuition is completely covered if the student's family makes less than $100,000 a year. Now seeing that making even over $100,000 going to an ivy league university gets you less loan debt than a UC is disheartening. A family of 4 making $60,000 going to a UC would still leave a student with about $15,000 to muster up in outside scholarship money, a part-time job (work study), and a combination of both student and parent loans. Unless a low-income student receives some outside scholarship funding apart from their federal and state financial aid, they WILL have loan debt from attending a CA public university. The UC's have something called a Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan which covers tuition and student service fees with grants/scholarships if the student is in financial need, HOWEVER, this does not include room and board, books, other miscellaneous living costs, etc. Granted that student loans are an "investment" in a students' education, it is ridiculous...

[pepboi]

10:21 AM on 03/15/2012

California has not made education a priority and an accessible option for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds. If you waver anywhere just above poverty levels, you better believe you will be guaranteed a hefty amount of debt. I have been pushing my students to consider applying broadly to both public and private universities because honestly, some private schools do have the capacity to finance my students' postsecondary education. Additionally, most private schools guarantee more one on one attention with professors, smaller class sizes, and graduation within 4 years. I always refer to UCs, CSUs, and private universities as "4-year universities", but only private schools are actually capable of living up to that expectation. I attend UC, CSU, and postsecondary conferences/workshops yearly and the most recent updates have shown that it takes on average 6 YEARS to graduate from a CSU and 4.5 years to graduate from a UC. How has the tuition of these universities doubled within the past several years with courses being cut left and right that students need to graduate on time? I get nauseous seeing my students' financial aid packages to UC's and CSU's. California's public higher education system is still holding on to its lingering reputation from too long ago as affordable quality institutions of learning. Until the UC Regents and state government set their priorities straight, I'm going to continue breaking down the facts for my students and looking towards schools that WANT to invest in their education and development.

[CENG90]

09:06 PM on 03/14/2012

Of course it costs nearly twice as much for me to attend UCSD (~$34000/year) than Harvard. UCSD doesn't have former president's as alumni, or CEO's of Fortune 500 companies. It also doesn't help that Jerry Brown is trying to find any excuse to cut money from all public education in California. It's too bad Sacramento is too ignorant to realize that investing in education is the best chance this state has to get back on its feet. There is no quick fix, and cutting funding to everything is going to do enough. Let me graduate with less student debt, and see what happens. It's no wonder why San Diego is the only west coast city to see an increase in college graduates living there. It is too expensive to live in California when we have 60k+ in student loans to pay off.

[IPredictARiot]

12:30 PM on 06/23/2012

Amen. For some reason, nobody seems to notice that all the tech centers are right near UCs and CSUs (and Stanford) where grads are pumped out ready to enter as computer engineers and whatnot.

It broke my heart to leave CA for grad school, I literally cried when I drove across the AZ border, but there is NO way to work, live, and pay off loans.

[mysteriousprsn2012]

08:27 PM on 03/14/2012

The UC System and Cal State university systems are two completely different entities with different tuition rates (UC tuition is more than double CSU prices). You look ignorant talking about CSU and then only quoting UC prices. Typical ignorant sensationalist journalism....

[cheleiams]

05:33 PM on 03/14/2012

Sadly, while the amount of public funding per student has gone down, nothing has been done to counter the increasing salaries of the upper management of these schools - or, for that matter the number of managers. My husband works in one of the IT sectors of one of the smaller CSU schools. Since he started six years ago, he's gone from having 3 direct managers to 6. The latest one was hired last week, without a job posting or interview, because the new head of IT wanted to bring in colleagues from the CSU school he'd been at previously. At the same time, the salary of the new president of the university is set to go up as much as $49,000, at a time when they're making cutbacks to classes and student services, and raising tuition.

[IPredictARiot]

12:30 PM on 06/23/2012

Wow. That is ridiculous.

[lily008]

04:36 PM on 03/14/2012

Just looked at my specific cost of attendance for the UC I attend and it's $28,500, so this article seems about right.

[lily008]

04:21 PM on 03/14/2012

If we want our country to improve, what we should be doing is cutting funding to the military and giving it back to education.

[Richcrafter]

12:19 AM on 03/13/2012

Bullcrap.