Tuition charges at both public and private colleges have more than doubled—in real dollars—compared with a generation ago. For most Americans, educating their offspring will be the largest financial outlay, after their home mortgage, they’ll ever make. And if parents can’t or won’t pay, young people often find themselves burdened with staggering loans. Graduating with six figures’ worth of debt is becoming increasingly common. However, some colleges are offering good value for students, and UMBC was listed among them in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
In the article, Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus write, “The Meyerhoff Scholars Program has greatly increased the number of African-Americans in the biological sciences and engineering. In addition, although the university is a research institution focused on science and engineering, undergraduate instruction in the liberal arts is not an afterthought. President Freeman A. Hrabowski sets a tone at the top that says teaching undergraduates is important, and the faculty knows he means it. Of all the research universities we’ve visited, it is the place that has most capably connected research with undergraduate education.”
The article, “Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?” ran Sunday, July 11.
This article is adapted from Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids—and What We Can Do About It, published next month by Henry Holt/Times Books.
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