$72,620

That is a lot of coin.   Lots of pressure on the college to produce a solid return on such an investment and to do so quickly.  

If you’re a Mass. resident, sending little Johnny to UMass for $16K a year doesn’t sound too bad.

Is an HC education four times better than UMass? Doubt it.

There's a special place in heaven for parents who pay the sticker price.

Our new President and the Board of Trustees have a full plate what with Covid, declining pool of potential students and the value of a liberal arts degree being questioned particularly given the cost of attending an elite college like HC.

It’s not just the education but everything else that goes with the degree: the value of the reputation/prestige of the college and the value of the college’s alumni/alumnae network along with all the assistance and opportunities provided by same to graduates.

Obviously state universities are & for decades have been less expensive for their residents than HC & other private colleges & universities. The cost of attending a private college today is astronomical. Increasing the endowment and providing financial aid to almost all but the affluent is a key to attracting top notch students. HYP and other Ivies have set the paradigm for financial aid which we should all try to emulate as closely as possible.
Add declining birth rates to the mix and maybe a mass extinction will occur which will leave only the strongest private colleges standing.
FWIW Washington Monthly Mag ranked HC #18 among all National Liberal Arts Colleges. Also, they ranked HC  #11 in "Biggest Bang For The Buck" among all colleges & universities in the Northeast.
Despite the weeping & gnashing of teeth HC is a strong school & the incoming administration will seek to strengthen it further by implementing needed changes and enhance the learning experience for all students. 
I see a bright future for HC as an upgraded small liberal arts college.

I have no statistics or figures on this.......just my own experiences as well as that of some of my classmates.

I loved HC, my education, my experience, my classmates, the campus, etc. I did not pay full freight between financial aid and scholarships. Even so, I was saddled with debt and making payments for years after graduation, and payments longer than four years of graduation. By that I mean I paid for school for not just the four years I was there, and the four years I was out, but more years still after that. It was a massive handicap-- it was a bit of a struggle to pay for my car, I had to live at home, I did not have a casual or financially flexible lifestyle, etc. And that's when tuition and room and board was in the low $40s.

At nearly double, why am I going to have my kids take out the equivalent of a home loan to then live at home when they graduate? Even my money guys are saying to have them learn a trade and make more money out of the gate and incur less debt.

Fine, I deleted it because it was a bit harsh but I don't agree that it was unwarranted.

May 9, 2021 22:56:06 GMT -4 ts1970 said:
I have no statistics or figures on this.......just my own experiences as well as that of some of my classmates.

The value of the HC network:

For example, in my case, I had some poor but mostly mediocre grades at HC. Too much goofing off, not enough studying until the last semester of senior year. First semester senior year I had a failing grade and a D+ in another course both in my major. Broke up with the gf that semester.....Mets won the pennant and the series in 69, yadda, yadda, yadda....the Vietnam war moratorium in DC in November.......so didn’t go to class regularly. Overall I recall my gpa was somewhere between 2.0 and 3.0 upon graduation. Much closer to 2.0 than 3.0 as I remember. A year later I had the nerve to apply to law school. I applied to six and was rejected by five. The one that accepted me, Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa had a HC graduate in charge of admissions. He must have convinced the law school administration (there was also a Fordham grad in the admin.) to accept me, and things worked out. I graduated three years later and passed the NJ bar exam on my first attempt and went on to have a successful career as a lawyer. Although I never spoke to the man, I am convinced to this day that the HC connection at that law school was the key to my getting the opportunity to become a lawyer and work in my chosen profession.

I have a little different kind of HC story. I was one of four children and my father was in the Coast Guard. We weren't rich. My parents said they'd help me through HC but I was then on my own. I got into a bunch of law schools but had no money. Suffolk Law School offered me a free ride. It was called the David I. Walsh Scholarship. As many of you know, Walsh was an HC alum and governor of MA. And speaking of UPS, I supported myself in law school by getting up at 2:00 AM every night and loading trucks at UPS from 3-7 Am before driving into Boston for classes.