Rising Freshmen’s Concern With College Costs Has Limits

College administrators have long worried that fear of the cost of enrolling could scare off potential students. As a result, college leaders regularly discuss whether they should spend as much money as they do on amenities that are not strictly academic, such as dormitory rooms, dining halls or entertainment for students.

A study being released today found that three-quarters of high school seniors who plan to attend a four-year college in the fall are concerned about being able to afford it. One-quarter of those had major concerns. Those from lower- and middle-income households, Black, Latinx, and first-generation students were more likely to have major concerns. None of those findings were surprising.

But the research from the Art & Science Group also asked students about how they view well-resourced colleges versus less well-resourced colleges.

“To address this question, we began by asking students whether or not they would, generally, prefer to attend a less expensive college or university that has fewer non-essential features and services or a more expensive school with more such features and services (related to residential life, athletics, fitness, dining, etc.), assuming each college had similarly strong academic programs and offerings,” said a report issued on the survey.

Forty-four percent preferred more features/more expensive colleges, and 39 percent preferred few features and a less expensive college. (Note that adjustments were only on the nonacademic parts of the college.)

Students were also asked about the college choices they were making.

“We asked students to rate institutions in their choice set—ones they thought they had a realistic chance of getting into—in terms of the level of amenities at that institution, identifying these institutions based on having a high, medium, or low level of non-academic resources supporting non-essential features and services,” a report on the survey said. “Features and services were defined in terms of such characteristics as: quality of dining hall, residential, and other student-life facilities; athletic facilities and breadth of offerings (club, varsity, etc.); as well as various types of advising (academic, career, life).”

Fifty-eight percent of students selected a high-resources institution, and 38 percent said they imagined attending a medium-resources institution. For their second-choice college, 46 percent of students were thinking of a highly resourced institution, and 44 percent wanted a medium-resourced institution.

Finally, Art & Science Group asked the students to rate their first-choice college on a scale of one to 10. The average score was 9.4. Then the students were asked how much their rating would change if the college they had in mind cut its nonacademic offerings to either the medium level or the low level. The students answered 7.9 for medium and 7.2 for low-resourced institutions. Again, this is without any changes to academics.

What the Results Mean

The survey was taken by 786 high school seniors who intend to attend a four-year institution in the fall as full-time students. That fact alone means the survey is not representative of the country. Respondents were 61 percent female and 61 percent white. The average reported household income was around $92,600. Art & Science Group says the margin of error for this population of students is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

David Strauss, a principal at Art & Science Group, said the students in the survey represented the “traditional core” headed to four-year colleges.

“The numbers are stark,” he said. Most students wouldn’t favor cuts in the quality of dormitories, dining halls or lazy rivers to save on tuition, Strauss said.

He acknowledged that one reason students may feel this way is that well-resourced institutions have more money for financial aid.

And he said any college that is thinking of making a decision based on these results should pause and do research on what its own students think.

But he said the trends are the same for all students, regardless of family income, race, ethnicity or gender, and the students raise an important question: Students say they are concerned about costs, but what would they give up to save money?