It's staggering for students _ and their parents_ to think that a mere half-century ago, a University education cost less than $500. With the price tag of Tufts today at a hefty $36,465, the past 50 years have seen a tuition increase of almost $36,000. In addition to the obvious inflationary reasons, the increasing cost of a University education can be seen as parallel to Tufts' evolution as an institution of higher learning.
| The Times, They are A'Changin' |
| Part Two of Five |
The lower cost of attending Tufts and the popularity of living at home during college meant that the price tag of an education was not as stressful to former students as it is today. For example, when Dr. Bill McDermott, who graduated from the University in 1951, started at Tufts, tuition was $440 a year. That price did not include housing, which McDermott recalls as costing an additional $250, or meals, which were "inexpensive."
"My family was comfortable... we weren't panicked about paying the tuition. I could make $440 working over the summer," he said. "At the time, Tufts had a scholarship program, and _ without asking _ I was given a half-tuition scholarship which amounted to about $900 over the four years."
McDermott attended Tufts at a transitional time in the University's history. Following World War II, a significant number of veterans composed the undergraduate student body. In 1947, 80 percent of Liberal Arts and Engineering students were veterans.
"The University helped out the veterans a lot [financially]," McDermott recalled. For example, a group of two-story buildings known as "Stearn's Village" was erected near Cousen's Gym to house married veterans with families at a low cost.
During the late 1940s and 1950s, the University shifted from its commuter school origins. Numerous dorms were subsequently erected: Carmichael in 1952, Hodgdon in 1954, Bush in 1959, and Tilton in 1961. Living on campus became a more central component of the University experience. The cost of attending the University rose, as it now automatically included housing as well as tuition bills.
In the mid-60s, the Federal Work-Study program was implemented at universities nationwide, including Tufts. The salaries of students with work-study jobs are subsidized by the government. However, the University has long offered jobs to students, according to Director of Financial Aid Patricia O'Reilly.
In the past, there were also ways for students to work off their loans. Elizabeth O'Shaughnessy, who graduated from the University in 1968, taught in a low-income school for five years to pay off the national defense loan she needed to get through college.
"At that time, the government was really trying to get teachers....especially in the lower income schools," she said.
There were also incentives for teachers to take classes at Tufts. A voucher program allowed Medford public school teachers like Marilyn Blumsack, who graduated from the University in 1979 to take one course per semester for free through the Continuing Education Program, now called Resumed Education for Adult Learners (REAL).
This program allowed Blumsack, who is now a program director at the Experimental college, to take classes without digging into her kids' college fund.
"They had limited financial aid," Blumsack said. "As a day student, my education probably would have cost me $15,000. [Because of the financial aid and the vouchers], though, it only cost me half that."
As the cost of a Tufts education has risen, so has the number of students who take on part-time jobs to finance it. The number of students receiving work-study money since the establishment of the University's Student Employment Office in 1981 has remained relatively stable, but an increasing number of non-work study students are taking on jobs, according to Director of Student Employment Joanne Grande.
"When I started in 1981, there were about 3,500 undergraduate students working. That number has gradually increased to about 4,000... that number stays basically the same because the school has basically stayed the same size," she said.
Though Tufts' tuition has increased at a higher rate than inflation rates within the past decades account for, the rise follows a national trend among esteemed liberal arts universities. A variety of options for financing education continue to exist, though today they are more through work-study jobs, financial aid packages, and the Student Employment Office, which helps students to locate on and off-campus jobs.
Though awed by the fact that yearly tuition rates are now in the mid-$30,000s, McDermott feels that a University education is nonetheless worth its price: "The school has grown so much and is so different from when I was there," he said. "Honestly, [Tufts] is a superb school, and it has improved immeasurably."
