Get a Free Ride to College From Stanford

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

Yeah. You heard right. Free college. From Stanford nonetheless. On February 19th Stanford University announced that it will no longer require tuition from students whose families earn under $100,00 a year. Along with free tuition for those students, more financial aid opportunities will be available for students whose families make over $100,000 a year.

Stanford decided to drop tuition due to the fact that the University’s endowment had grown almost 22 percent last year to $17.1 billion. That sum had begun to attract notice from lawmakers who want wealthy institutions and universities to do more to reduce tuition costs.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Stanford is among dozens of high-end colleges and universities where tuition has grown faster than the rate of inflation and where tax-exempt endowments have increased by more than 10 percent annually.

In the past 10 years, faster than the rate of inflation, tuition at Stanford has increased from $21,300 to $34,800. That does not take into account housing, supplies and other miscellaneous costs associated with attending college.

In the future, look for more high-end colleges and universities, like Yale and Harvard, to follow Stanford’s lead in dropping tuition for their students. More colleges are starting to break down financial barriers and I for one am glad to see it.