Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 5, 1993 TAG: 9304050077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
VA. COLLEGES STILL CALLED BARGAINS
For years, Virginia has had the reputation of providing a bargain education - good quality at a reasonable price.That reputation has endured, despite increases that have placed the state's public college tuitions among the 10 highest in the country.
The sale may be over, but the store's still crowded - in part because, although tuition is high, costs for room and board and other expenses are still lower than in other states.
And also, says Debbie Inman, guidance counselor for the Roanoke Valley Governor's School for Science and Technology, because "tuition is up everywhere."
"There's an outcry that education is going up," said Steve Wright, a counselor from Christiansburg High School. "But in Virginia, it's still cheaper to get a good education."
In Bridgewater, N.J., a feeder school for Virginia Tech, 30 to 40 students a year are still applying. Another favorite is Old Dominion University in Norfolk, where Bridgewater guidance counselor Jim Kelly sent his own son.
"Truthfully, Virginia is more in line cost-wise now with other universities," Kelly said. "Our students continue to apply there."
Virginia isn't the bargain for out-of-staters it was in the 1980s. The legislature passed a law requiring non-Virginians to bear at least the full cost of college tuition. At the University of Virginia, that amount has climbed to 120 percent, and students from New Jersey pay more than $12,000 to go there.
"But we're a densely populated state," Kelly said. To get into a public college in New Jersey is extremely competitive, and whole families have continued to look at schools like Tech, Radford University, William and Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University, and, of course, UVa.
"It's almost a tradition here," Kelly said. "Sure, tuition's changed in the past four or five years, but there hasn't been a change in the number of our students that have applied."
Students at another feeder school, Centennial High School in Columbia, Md., also continue to apply to Virginia colleges.
James Madison University, which announced a 4.3 percent tuition increase for next year, and Tech are popular among those students because they aren't in metro areas, Centennial counselor Sam Leishure said.
But Leishure has also seen a trend, inspired by a floundering economy, for students to look closer to home for college.
The number of Maryland students applying to Virginia schools may decline because of that, he said.
University of Virginia, long considered a "public ivy," still seems to be getting the out-of-state applicants, says Louise Dudley, a UVa spokeswoman. "In fact, the number we received this year is higher than what we received last year."
UVa's tuition will go to $12,254 a year for out-of-state students, and to $4,350 for in-state students.
Many Ivy League schools neared the $20,000-per-year mark some time ago.
Yale was up to $17,500 last year. Tuition at Duke was $16,121. And Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., was up to $16,589.
Although out-of-state students continue to apply, Virginia Tech isn't seeing as many students actually commit to the university.
"That causes problems as more and more we depend on tuitions for revenue," Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said. As higher education competes with Medicaid and jails for state money, administrators are seeing less and less of it.
"Unless we shave back, that money comes from tuition," Hincker said.
Tech expects to raise tuition again this year, though the board and budget committee still haven't determined how much. Radford University, too, has not yet decided on its increase, said Deborah Brown, university spokeswoman.
Meanwhile, Dan Hicks, finance coordinator for the State Council of Higher Education, predicts an average increase of 10 percent next year for Virginia's schools.
Much of the money will go for salary increases approved this year by the legislature. The raise will be the first faculty have had in years, but only a percentage will come from the state budget, Hicks said. The universities will have to make up the rest themselves.
Guidance counselors in the state say they feel lucky - even blessed - that Virginia students can choose from a number of schools.
In the Northeast, there are just fewer choices, says John Koesel, counselor at Upper St. Clair High School near Pittsburgh.
Even Penn State, which welcomes a large number of students, costs $7,000 a year in-state, Koesel said.
"It's almost as cheap to go elsewhere."