Our good friend Paul Lloyd Hemphill, a private consultant at Video College Coach, has sent us this letter from one of his clients — it’s a must-read about that shows that parents might actually be in the driver’s seat in the college admissions game these days.

We have removed any last names and addresses from the letter.  The rest is left in.

Robert NAME

Alexander  NAME

Massachusetts, USA

April 12, 2009

 

Admissions Person

Northeastern University

Boston, MA  02115

 

Dear Admissions Person:

First, let me open by saying thank you on behalf of Alex for his acceptance to Northeastern University – clearly an outstanding university.  Next, I wanted to let you know that he will not be attending Northeastern, having chosen to attend the University of Connecticut instead.  The main reason for his decision is one of economics – approximately $20K per year total cost at UCONN vs. $47K per year total cost at Northeastern. 

 Over the past few years it has become increasingly clear that private universities such as Northeastern are pricing the middle class out of attending their schools.  With the rising cost of tuition and room and board far outstripping increases in cost of living you are basically closing the doors to all but the wealthy, who have no problem paying the total cost of attending college no matter what that cost is, or the underprivileged students who have achieved academically, yet have no way to pay for a college education.  The main question is could we afford to pay for Alex to attend Northeastern having been offered very little to no financial aid?  The answer is yes IF we chose to take thousands of dollars in loans, tap into our retirement funds and use the equity that we’ve built in our home.  All completely unreasonable expectations by universities such as yours.  The next question: Is an undergraduate degree from Northeastern worth (4 X $27K) $108K more than an undergraduate degree from UCONN?  The answer clearly is absolutely not.  In fact, the general population is now beginning to see more clearly that where the undergrad degree is earned, provided that it’s from an accredited institution, is not really as critical as institutions of higher learning want them to believe.  Also, the major marketing effort (mailings, calls) that Northeastern has engaged in with accepted students leads me to believe that your admissions rate may be lower than you expected this academic year. 

 So, with little financial aid from Northeastern to bring your costs in line with what Alex has been offered by UCONN, and based on his decision that your costs are far too high, he has decided to accept admission to UCONN majoring in Physiology and Neurobiology for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Sincerely,

Robert NAME