USC OFFERS LOWER-INCOME FREE TUITION
The University of Southern California announced Thursday that it would wipe out tuition for students from lower- and middle-income families, becoming the latest institution to confront skyrocketing costs amid a national debate over rising student debt loads.
American students from families with annual incomes of $80,000 or less will be eligible for the full undergraduate tuition waiver at USC starting in autumn. The move comes as the school is attempting to draw students with more socioeconomic diversity, competing with both the University of
California system and prestigious private universities that offer generous financial aid programs.
USC is one of the largest private universities in the country, and its palm treelined campus of 48,500 students, where the children of immigrants study alongside those of celebrities, plays an outsize role in Los Angeles, a city wrestling with income inequality. The class divide was further emphasized by last year’s college admissions scandal, in which numerous wealthy parents were accused of bribing their children’s way into the school.
In the last decade, USC has recruited preeminent faculty and poured money into research to become a top-tier academic institution and athletic powerhouse. But it has also been rocked by scandal, including accusations of sexual misconduct by the longtime head gynecologist of the university’s health center and the resignation of the dean of the medical school over allegations of drug use on campus.
USC’S president, Carol Folt, who was hired last year, said the offer of free tuition would help the university compete for students who might otherwise attend California’s public system, which is relatively generous with financial aid and offers significantly lower costs. “More students who want to come to USC will be able to choose that,” she said.
Tuition at USC was roughly $57,000 this academic year, but the total cost of attending — including housing, food and books — reached almost $77,500.
In offering financial support, the university will also take into account the skyrocketing cost of living in Southern California, Folt said. Owning a home will no longer be considered in the calculation used to determine a student’s financial need.
High real estate prices can exaggerate the wealth of lower- and middle-class families who have a large part of their net worth tied up in their homes.
“People work so hard to have a house,” Folt said, “and we didn’t want that to count against their chances of having their kids going to the school.”
Both Harvard and Stanford make tuition free or close to it for students from families with incomes of up to $150,000, nearly twice the threshold set by USC.