HBCUs fees are increasing. Read how some
parents, and students cope with higher tuition costs.
Leah Beverly is getting a first-rate education at Spelman College and her parents are paying first-rate tuition and fees for their only child to attend one of the 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities or HBCUs.
Leah's mother, Cynthia, expects to pay up to $29,000 for her daughter's second year at the private university. This is about a $3,000 increase from the previous year, but also includes tuition, fees, living off-campus and making two trips home.
Spelman is not the only school with rising tuition rates. A recent report, Trends in College Pricing, by the College Board, a nonprofit membership association that offers programs and services in college admissions, says that on average, tuition and fees will increase $365 or 7.1% for a four-year public college or university, $1,190 or about 5.9% for a four-year private institution, and $112 or 5.4% for a two-year public college or university.
The rising costs are to be expected, Beverly says, whose friend with two sons at Morehouse College is seeing the same kind of increases.
Wilbert Bryant, counselor to the secretary for the White House Initiative on HBCUs in Washington, D.C., says that on average, HBCUs are increasing about 5% each year, but in the last two years, public HBCUs only rose about 2%. He says that many of the schools have been sensitive to increases because the majority of their students are on financial aid.
For example, he says, Morgan State University for the 2003-2004 year raised its out-of-state tuition 9% and 14% for in-state students. This year, it went up 7% for in state and just 4% for out-of-state students.
Meanwhile, the Beverly's are using a mix of loans and savings to cover the cost of their daughter's education. “We saved enough to cover four years at a state school,” Beverly says which has only covered about two years at Spelman. They will use loans to pay for the rest.
11/11/05
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Friday, November 11th 2005 at 11:14PM
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