Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
57% RECEIVE AID Tuition, Fees to Rise 7.4%, Totaling $22,230 for 1991 President Charles M. Vest announced the 1991-92 tuition would be $16,900, a figure sufficient to maintain MIT's long-standing policy of need-blind admissions. Some colleges have abandoned this policy in recent years because of financial constraints. "Students should be admitted on the basis of excellence and not on family income. MIT has excellent students; they have moderate wallets," President Vest said. "One of the ironic facts of the financing of higher education today is that private colleges and universities must charge very substantial tuitions in order to ensure that they have the resources to provide financial aid to their students. Despite our constant efforts to keep down the price of education, and to restrain our costs, substantial tuitions are required to continue need-blind admission, which is critical to maintain freedom of opportunity in a society increasingly dependent on scientific and technical knowledge," he said. This year, 57 percent of the undergraduates received financial aid (long-term loans, student jobs and scholarships) from MIT. A typical financial aid package to help pay this year's $20,700 price for tuition, room and board included $10,600 in scholarship, $4,000 in loans and $1,700 from student employment. Dr. Vest said tuition, room and board will increase in 1991-92 by $1,530, or 7.4 percent, to $22,230. Average room and board will be $5,330, an increase of $230. The tuition increase will be $1,300. "Tuition usually covers only half the actual cost of an MIT education," Dr. Vest said. The remainder is met by earnings from the endowment and by unrestricted income from tuition, gifts and grants. "A proud part of MIT's tradition has been that it has attracted an unusually large number of students from financially modest backgrounds, often the first of their families to attend a university. It has been an upward pathway for bright young men and women. This has been made possible by the policy of admitting students without regard to their ability to pay, and using the Financial Aid Office to guarantee to meet their demonstrated financial need." Dr. Vest said, "Admission to MIT is an analytical and subjective process with extremely high academic standards. It is not done simply by the numbers, by grades and SATs. We are dedicated to finding and recruiting brilliant students from all kinds of schools in the nation. "Our students are admitted to MIT not by virtue of their connections, not by virtue of their pocketbooks, but by virtue of their minds and accomplishments. And their minds pay us back through an intellectual vigor that enriches this university, this state, this nation, this world," President Vest said. Over the past five years, MIT has admitted and supported an increasing number of students from families who are in the lowest national quartile for family income. The university's self-help level--the amount students are expected to provide from loans and term time work before receiving scholarship assistance--was raised $400 or seven percent to $6,100. MIT reduces the self-help requirements for students from families of very low income. The lowest requirement next year will be $2,600. MIT received $66 million in undergraduate tuition this year. Students and their families who demonstrated financial need were awarded $27 million in scholarships to help pay their tuition. The MIT Financial Aid Office provided $21 million from MIT's own endowment and unrestricted funds, and administered the other $6 million in outside scholarships, which included $3 million in federal grants. In addition, students from wealthier families who failed to qualify for financial aid received more than $4 million in scholarships from sources outside of the financial aid system. "We've found that only about 20 percent of the parents are paying the full parental share. Altogether, scholarships helped pay a little over $31 million of the $66 million tuition price," President Vest said. In recent years, MIT has spent an increasing proportion of its own funds on scholarships in order to maintain its need-blind admissions policy. "Federal scholarships have not kept pace with the need," said Dr. Vest. "In 1980, the federal government provided 37 percent of the grants received by all MIT undergraduates. In 1990, the federal government provided 12 percent of the grants received by all MIT undergraduates." Undergraduates this year received financial aid also in the form of $9 million in loans. The loans include $1 million from MIT's Technology Loan Fund, $3 million in Perkins loans administered by MIT, and $5 million in Stafford loans from banks. Also, students on financial aid this year will earn $3 million in term-time jobs. Dr. Vest praised the university faculty and staff for trimming costs. Program budgets have been generally flat this year and last year, although there have been moderate pay increases for faculty and staff. "Vigorous efforts to contain costs will continue," he said Dr. Vest remarked, "People often try to compare the costs of running a university with the cost of running a house, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. It's really an apples and oranges comparison. There's just no way of avoiding the fact that maintaining the cutting edge in education--with modern scientific instruments, computers, high costs of energy and utilities, the need to stay competitive on faculty salaries in order to attract and keep the best people--is a more expensive proposition than running a household." MIT has approximately 4,400 undergraduates, of which about 4,000 are American citizens. The undergraduate population includes 34 percent women, about 13 percent under-represented minorities, and about 19 percent Asian Americans. A recent geographic profile of the American undergraduate students at MIT showed that 84 percent came from outside of New England, including 26 percent from New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania; 17 percent from the North Central midwestern states; 16 percent from Western states; 16 percent from New England; 12 percent from the South Atlantic states; and 13 percent were from the South/Southwest or Americans living abroad.