Dennis Shiraev of the Cornell Insider/Review makes a good point about the potential impact of the economic decline for high priced schools:
Yields could be lower this year because of the economic downturn, with fewer students accepting admissions offers because of poor financial prospects. On the other hand, perhaps this already factored into the application process, and fewer students with questionable financial circumstances applied in the first place? I predicted in a Cornell Review article that these two things would offset each other and that yields would stay pretty much the same at high priced universities, but we will have to wait and see.
My take is that though Stanford is high-priced, our extraordinarily high financial aid for students coming from families with annual income under 100k means low income students won’t choose not to apply because of the recession. If anything that generous aid may make the school more appealing in a year when many other scholarships are being cut back. It may be, though, that students who don’t qualify for financial aid will seek out less expensive alternatives, or schools with merit-based aid.
Any other high-priced school attendees have thoughts?
For more, check out Dennis’ blog here. I couldn’t find the Cornell Review article, so feel free to send it over or post it below.