The list of Massachusetts colleges and universities offering free tuition to some students is growing. Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley announced this month it would do this for any U.S. family with an income of up to $150,000. Harvard and the University of Massachusetts system are also on the list of about 30 schools. Add to that, community college is free for in-state students.
At MassLive, higher education reporter Juliet Schulman-Hall has has been covering the free tuition movement. NEPM's Jill Kaufman asked her what's behind the rising number of schools giving students a break.
Juliet Schulman-Hall: A lot of colleges and universities in Massachusetts have been offering different forms of tuition reductions or free tuition, in part because there's been an issue with decreasing enrollment in some institutions.
So, as we've seen over the past few years, the number of traditional high school students who are going from high school to college is decreasing because the birth rate has declined, and as a result, the higher education landscape has become more and more competitive. So that's one reason, demographics are shifting.
Another reason is that free community college was implemented last year [in Massachusetts] and for adult learners two years ago, and so that has just built up some more competition in that sphere.
And then there's also expansion of more programs like MassGrant Plus, which covers unmet finances, which helps colleges be able to offer programs like that.
NEPM's Jill Kaufman: And just to clarify, when we're talking demographics and declining birth rate, that is Massachusetts we're talking about overall.
That is Massachusetts. But it is also happening in a lot of states across the country.
What are the ranges of household incomes that allow you to benefit from the free tuition that's being offered?
It's really dependent on the school, I would say.
You know, at the UMass system, it is $75,000. But as you work your way up in certain private institutions like Harvard, there are caps that are $150,000 or $200,000.
For programs like free community college that is less dependent on the household income, but on a variety of other factors.
To some degree, colleges where they can have been needs-blind and have been offering many scholarship grants that that may be tied to FAFSA. But many times private colleges don't want to touch their endowment. So, where is this money coming from?
I think that institutions are getting it from a variety of factors. I think that there's tapping into more state and federal financial aid, but I think it's a combination of that.
I think more donors are recognizing that as the tuition prices, the sticker prices, as you will, are increasing throughout the state, there becomes this narrative that 'you can't go to college if you don't have the money to,' and I think donors are as well, specifically making donations to colleges in the name of financial aid and helping to create more programs like free tuition.
Let's look a little bit closer at the impact of free community college in Massachusetts and these four year colleges offering free tuition. What's the tie in?
Certain colleges are making the tuition free announcements because they are competing for the same pool of students, in that free community college is attracting certain students who might have gone to smaller private colleges, for instance.
There was a concern by smaller institutions that that competition would draw fewer students to their institution and have an impact on their enrollment.
But I've also been hearing anecdotally from schools that they are beginning to see the trickling in of transfer students.
Although [Massachusetts's] free community college has been in effect for only a year, the adult program, which was MassReconnect, happened two years ago, and some of the students who were in the undergraduate, traditionally college age portion, even if they didn't have two years of free community college, they did have one. You're beginning to see some of the partnerships between community colleges and state institutions or private institutions.
Looking at the Five Colleges [in western Mass.], when you look at UMass Amherst and its offer of free tuition at some level, and again, we're talking just tuition, does that impact Mount Holyoke then, as one of the schools that has offered this free tuition?
I'm sure that that is a combined pressure. Every institution is constantly looking at other colleges and universities across the state or in their local area to see how can they compete for the students.
This is not only a means of trying to attract more students, but it's also a form of marketing for themselves in that even if a student in previous years would have gotten full tuition and aid covered because of their financial situation — more students are seeing advertisements or articles or whatever it is that they could go to college for free, and that is allowing them to choose institutions, in part because of that.
