Harvard Should Be Free?

I’m not a fan of CNN’s Glenn Beck, but I did read his column about Harvard’s endowment. While there is a lot of politics in the post, one fact did standout. According to Beck:

For what’s been estimated to be about $300 million a year (less than 1 percent of their endowment’s value) Harvard could completely waive tuition, room and board for every single one of their students. Instead, they announced an increase in those fees of about 3.5 percent for next year. Being a student at Harvard will now cost a staggering $47,215 a year.

I went to Harvard. My parents were typical middle class (both educators) and when I opened my financial aid letter I was offered … NOTHING! That’s when I became a fanatic about applying for scholarships. But even with outside scholarships my parents still had to struggle to pay the tuition bill that arrived each semester. So you can imagine my reaction when a week before graduation the college approached me for a donation to the “senior gift fund.” Here I was after four years of tuition bills at a University which constantly flaunted their multi-billion dollar endowment, being asked to make a donation. To make matters worse, the minimum Harvard said it would accept was $20 — something about bank processing fees making anything less not worth the expense. Yeah right! But not wanting to be accused of lacking school spirit or seeming ungrateful for the (and this is totally honest) amazing college experience, I did the only thing my conscious would allow: I wrote a check for $1.

So, when I read Beck’s column a part of me totally agreed. Why not?! And yet … I could not get myself to fully agree. In part it’s because there are plenty of kids whose family’s can afford it. It seems unfair that they would get a free ride along with those who actually needed the help. But that’s a small issue. My bigger problem is that the price of tuition is what forces you to be critical about the quality of the education that you are getting.Without a price how can we judge value?

But it’s more than that. Without price, would we even question value? When something is free what are our expectations? Not much! You get what you pay for, as the saying goes. But when you put a price on something you also force a value judgment. Harvard can price its education anyway it wants. But as students (née consumers) we still must answer “is it worth it?” Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives. I know more than a few students who have turned down Harvard (and other similarly expensive schools) to go to their state universities. They did this because they looked at the prices of each, compared what they were getting and made the decision that their state schools were a better value. This is especially common today when you consider the importance of graduate school. If you’re going to be a doctor, go to the cheapest college you can, take advantage of every opportunity you’re given and then blow your money on Harvard Med School. That will have a more significant impact on your future than if you did it the other way around.

Now before you think that I believe everyone should pay. I don’t. I do believe in financial aid and in providing assistance to those who cannot afford it. And I certainly feel that Harvard has been treating middle class families unfairly. This has been somewhat corrected with recent changes to the financial aid policies which are only now more generous toward middle class students. When I got accepted I certainly didn’t expect Harvard to pay for everything, but I had hope to get a little more than nothing!

As easy as the numbers make it seem, transforming a Harvard education into a freebie is not the answer to the soaring cost of college. And I don’t mind the fact that Harvard has a $34.6 billion endowment. In fact, I can honesty say that without my contribution — which Harvard did find a way to cash — the endowement would only be $34,599,999,999.

It’s Complicated to be Simple

Today I was reminded about the importance of simplicity. It happened while I was cleaning out a drawer that I rarely open. It’s called the “junk drawer” and it’s the repository for all of the “stuff” I don’t need but don’t have the will to throw away. As I was rummaging through the “junk drawer” I found the remote control from the very first T.V. I owned. The amazing thing about the remote was how simple it was. It had exactly 15 buttons — 10 of which were number keys for changing the channel. It looked so bare. For a moment I thought maybe the rest of the buttons had fallen off!

My current television’s remote has — get this — no less than 43 buttons! Here’s the rub — I still only use the functions that were on my old remote. But now I have to hunt for them in the sea of extra buttons. And the buttons that I do use have become so much smaller due to the fact that more needed to be squeezed onto the face of the control. Sometimes I actually have to pause and think before using the remote. That’s sacrilegious! You shouldn’t have to think at all when watching television — that’s the whole point!

I see this same problem when I read college and scholarship applications and essays. I would venture to say that more than 90% of the application essays I’ve read have too much extra “stuff” which only serves to hide the good stuff. Much like the difference between my two remotes, it’s much better to have a clean and focused design than a feature-filled jumbo. This is why I’m a huge advocate of ruthless editing and keeping only the core of your message.

This isn’t easy since some of the material that you need to cut may be both interesting and important to you. (I can imagine the Sony engineers who designed my current remote finding it very hard not to add new features simply because they could.) You’ll have to make some tough decision. But the result will be a highly focused and powerful message that will stick in the minds of the admission officers and scholarship judges. A 500-word essay that shares an important slice of your life is much more powerful than that same essay with the addition of 500 extra words. You see, honestly, if I could, I would gladly exchange my current super-duper remote that does too many things I don’t care about for my old one that only did the few things I really needed. I would love it!