Vanderbilt guarantees full-tuition scholarships to all students with family incomes below $150,000

bl4ckblooc , 5 months ago

This is awesome to hear.

Varyk , 5 months ago

Anyone know what the catch/es or ulterior motive/s is/are?

danc4498 , 5 months ago

Probably super hard to get into.

Varyk , 5 months ago

That’d be great. Here’s to both of my crossed fingers.

hactar42 , 5 months ago

Looks like they have a 7% acceptance rate. That’s on par with most ivy league schools.

ElleChaise , 5 months ago

I can think of a few, but right off top: most people won't be eligible, won't get in, or will be otherwise stipilated out after the fact. Secondly, this type of fund is typically a massive donation, which hypothetically equates to a massive tax write off for the donator. Thirdly (and admitted tinfoil-hattedly), this is gonna piss off a ton of unaffected Republicans made to believe this is like letting commies come right into their living rooms to fuck their wives while they watch.

aniki , 5 months ago

I got free tuition for being a Veteran. Tuition was like 2k a semester. The fees were like 13k on top of that.

restingboredface , 5 months ago

Oklahoma colleges are like this. They had some kind of tuition price freeze built into their state constitution so colleges couldn’t let costs get out of control. BUT-- the law didn’t say anything about fees, so schools just jacked those up like crazy.

Problem is that people who get scholarships often get tuition covered, but not fees. When I went to grad school I usually had about $10k per year not paid for. Add that to cost of living and summer classes (which weren’t paid at all) I was spending about $20k per year even though I had a “full ride”.

Just paid off my $150k in student loans this year.

Collin , 5 months ago

I think the main reason is that they want to ensure the best students can attend, regardless of their current income. Successful alumni are more likely to contribute back to the university in the future.

I graduated from Vandy within the last decade and can attest that their financial aid program has been great for a while. There’s no way we could have afforded it without their assistance and I was able to graduate with very minimal debt that I easily paid off.

Varyk , 5 months ago

Oh fantastic. Whenever I hear a really good thing like this, I immediately worry that it’s like that college tuition reform bill republicans are pushing that is actually a thinly veiled attempt to begin racially tracking and matriculating students.

Yeah, that’s great to hear about the Vanderbilt program, and valuable to hear about your experience there.

thisorthatorwhatever , 5 months ago

Crap. How about actually covering all costs; books, food, random fees. Lame, that it’s just tuition.

RattlerSix , 5 months ago

My daughter just got accepted to NYU and they are doing the same thing for people below $100,000. It is funded by a $20 million donation so there’s not really a catch, except it’s only for freshmen. I’m not sure what school will cost next year. The Vandy deal sounds better, I wish Vandy was her dream college lol

wise_pancake , 5 months ago

Ok so it’s fine to just steal from people who have more?

And what if people in that group’s parents don’t want to pay their tuition for them? They’re not necessarily wealthy because their parents are.

Wilshire OP , 5 months ago

How is that stealing? This isn’t a zero-sum game.

iAmTheTot , 5 months ago

I think that their stance is that education should be free for everyone regardless of income.

girlfreddy , 5 months ago

All of this.

wise_pancake , 5 months ago

Basically this. Selective pricing is shitty, and kids who come from rich parents that don’t want to help out get screwed.

Also if you can afford this, why the hell is your tuition so high and why can’t you least make it chairs for everyone?

Wilshire OP , 5 months ago

I was disqualified from federal student aid because of parental income, and had to provide court paperwork proving that I was a “non-traditional student” because I was removed from my home due to child abuse. Regardless, I think this is a move in the right direction.

jjjalljs , 5 months ago

Seems cool. The system should probably be a scale and not a cliff. Like it shouldn’t go from “full ride” to nothing from $150,000 to $150,001. Don’t want perfect and good to be murderous enemies, though.