College charges
on rise in Maine
College prices are going up.
Again.
This fall, students will pay 5 to 7 percent more to go to school at Maine’s major colleges and universities, with charges that will range from $7,600 a year to nearly $38,000 a year.
For most Maine colleges and universities, those rates are the latest in a long line of tuition hikes.
At Bowdoin College in Brunswick, for example, tuition, room, board and fees have increased between .6 percent and 15.8 percent every year for three decades. In 1970, it cost students about $3,800 to attend.
The school, which was named one of the most expensive colleges in America by The Princeton Review last year, will cost $37,890 this fall. That’s up about 5 percent.
“I think everybody’s disturbed to some degree by the increasing costs in higher education,” said Greg Gollihur, director of education services for the Finance Authority of Maine, an independent state agency that helps parents and students find money for college.
According to the Education Commission of the States, a national group that helps track and shape education policy, tuition and fees at public four-year colleges rose 38 percent between 1992 and 2002. Median family income rose by 27 percent.
Nationwide, the group said, families must pay 24.2 percent of their income to send a child to a four-year college.
In Maine, the median family income is nearly $45,180. A family earning that amount would have to spend about 22.5 percent of its income to send a child to the University of Maine at Farmington and 84 percent of their income to send a child to Bowdoin College.
Federal lawmakers have been so concerned about ever-increasing college costs that Republicans on the House Education Committee called the situation a crisis last week. They proposed revamping federal student aid programs and holding schools accountable for their skyrocketing price tags.
/////Sticker shock/////
But college officials and finance experts say families shouldn’t panic when they see a school’s “sticker price.”
Most students will qualify for financial aid.
“When we admit them, we commit to meeting their full need,” said James Miller, director of admissions and financial aid at Bowdoin.
Since they have large endowments and wealthy alumni, Bates, Bowdoin and Colby can cut their price tags by more than half. The average grant package is about $20,000. Loans and work programs help even more.
The average Maine family, Miller said “is probably going to pay less for us than the University of Maine.”
At the Finance Authority of Maine, Gollihur agreed.
While advertised costs “can have an impact on where, or even whether, to attend a post secondary education, a good number of students don’t pay that.”
At the university system, which can’t afford to hand out $20,000 scholarships, students can get some state and federal grants, loans and work study. According to Gollihur, the average four-year university graduate leaves school with $18,000 to $19,000 in students loans. That, he said, is “manageable.”
For students who still don’t want that much debt, he said, there’s the community college system. Although the system allowed schools to go up on their room and board rates, tuition and fees have been frozen for years. Tuition is now $2,040, with fees that range from $200 to $1,500, depending on the program. Room and board ranges from $4,200 to $5,200, depending on the campus.
Students can often transfer their community college credits to the university system toward a four-year degree.
At the University of Maine in Orono, a year will cost $12,080, a 5.3 percent increase.
The University of Southern Maine will cost just over $10,950, up 5.7 percent.
The University of Maine at Farmington will cost more than $10,200, up 7.2 percent.
But no matter what school they choose, Gollihur urges students to talk with college officials about financial aid. They often have good news for cash-strapped families.
“You should always look at the school you want to attend and then work with that school of your choice,” he said. “After all, they want students to attend.”
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