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Friday, April 24, 2020

Desperate for fall enrollees, colleges are luring students with campus perks and cold cash

Put down a deposit and, at some schools, your tuition will never go up. Like to sleep in? Other colleges will give you early registration privileges so you don’t get stuck with morning classes. Still others are throwing in free food, free football tickets, even free books autographed by celebrity faculty members in residence.

All of this is driven, of course, by the existential danger that too few students will sign on for college this fall because of the pandemic, which is wrecking family finances and raising fears that campuses will not reopen anyway, forcing a continuation of online teaching.

But while such factors as more financial aid and bigger discounts might benefit applicants who know how to get them or have parents or college counselors who do, they’re likely to elude those who need them most: low-income, first-generation students. If they even had access to college counselors in their high schools, they do not now, because they’re isolated at home.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

They make some good points but Let’s not forget that most high school seniors get accepted to college by January. Colleges should already be filled for the fall.

Anonymous said...

My son was accepted to several universities for the fall semester but we have not enrolled him yet. Big difference. Heck, we don't know if he is even going to graduate being they never finished the third marking period, much less the fourth. I hope they make some decisions soon, but until then I am not committing him to anything.

Anonymous said...

Why would he not graduate? They have already said numerous times that students will not be held back due to the virus.

Anonymous said...

Blacks go FREE as usual !!!