With the stock market hitting decade lows and unemployment hitting 7.6 percent in January, American families are facing numerous financial hardships. While news headlines note the gloom of home foreclosures and healthcare deficiencies, the economic downturn is effecting the SMU community in a different way. More students are having trouble affording the Hilltop’s high price tag, and financial aid packages are in high demand.
The recession has not deterred high school seniors from applying to SMU. Applications are at an all-time high at approximately 9,000. However, just because people are applying does not mean they will choose to attend SMU.
“The question in our mind is, yes, they’re applying. But will they actually decide to come here?” SMU Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admission Hilary McIlvain said.
SMU’s tuition ran $29,430 for the 2008-2009 school year, according to the SMU Web site. This cost is 17 percent higher than the average tuition cost at a private four-year university, according to CollegeBoard, a 109 year-old non-profit institution that connects students and colleges. SMU’s tuition is also nearly three and a half times the cost of a public four-year university. The total cost for tuition, fees, room and board at SMU runs at an estimated $43,295 per year.
Even if students can manage to pony up for the Mustang price tag or the tab for other high-priced universities, it is not without sacrifice.
“My daughter will still get to attend SMU or TCU, but it will be much harder on my family,” said Gerald Roberts, a banker at Citicorp in New York. “My stock portfolio and retirement are way down. We will have to take money from other places to pay for tuition. This is a big topic of discussion up here.”
However, SMU is making an extra effort to show applicants that SMU can be affordable. According to McIlvain, financial aid packages are being sent out weeks in advance. Applicants will also receive scholarship information earlier than before
“We know how important [financial] information will be to [applicant’s] decisions. We are working hard to monitor all of these different factors and are hoping they do not effect next year’s class,” said McIlvain.
However, there may not be as much money available to the incoming freshman class as there has been in years before. Last October, the SMU endowment lost nearly 13 percent of its value. Money from the endowment, in part, funds grant and scholarship money for mustangs. Since there is less money in the endowment, less money is available to students.
Current SMU students are also struggling to afford college costs. More students are applying for financial aid who did not apply when they entered SMU. The financial aid office is seeing a rise in appeals, which are cases in which a student applied for financial aid and was denied by the university.
“So many continuing students are coming in and saying, ‘The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) shows that my dad made $100,000 last year, but he lost his job last week,'” said Walker Self, a financial aid officer. “The fact is, many students who could once afford school now cannot.”
