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The (real) costs of college worth the price
Andrew Garber
Seattle Times
With one simple act, Danny Tremblay could cut the roughly $17,000 tab for his first year at the University of Washington by several thousand dollars.
He'd rather not. It would mean giving up his dorm room and commuting from home in Issaquah.
"I really like living on campus and doing stuff in the city and making friends," says Tremblay, a ruddy-cheeked freshman with close-cropped hair and a football player's build.
He's certainly not alone.
About 69 percent of the 4,060 in-state freshmen at the UW come from homes within commuting distance some within walking distance of the university. Yet the majority of the students who live nearby prefer living on campus.
It's an expensive choice.
Although Tremblay will spend more than $4,000 on tuition money that pays for classrooms, libraries and professors' salaries most of his expenses go to things that have little to do with learning.
He'll dole out more than $7,000 this school year for shared space in a cramped dorm room, a meal plan that lets him eat on campus and a host of other items such as a computer, bedding, lamps, posters and the ubiquitous cell phone.
Add up the expenses, in fact, and it turns out much of his money goes for the privilege of living on campus.
Why not cut costs and live at home?
Ask students and you'll likely hear them say they want the "college experience." There's something about living on campus with thousands of other students that makes college click.
At a time families are increasingly worried about how much money they'll have to scrape together to put their kids through college, The Seattle Times followed Tremblay around campus to see where his money goes and what he gets in return.
The UW has studied freshmen and concluded that those who live on campus seem to have a richer learning experience than students who commute. They're more likely to form study groups, meet with professors to help with research and forge connections that last a lifetime.
Commuter students often "miss out on all that," says George Bridges, the UW's dean for undergraduate education.
Tremblay didn't make the choice to live on campus lightly.
He knows how much his education costs, almost down to the dollar. He had opportunities to attend out-of-state universities but chose the UW because it would cost less. His mother works two jobs to put him and his sister through college. He works summers to help out.
Yet Tremblay, like most students, believes living on campus enhances everything he does. "So far," he says, "I think it's worth it."
Tuition and books: $4,923
His single biggest expense, and one he'd pay whether he lived in a dorm or at home, is the $4,458 tuition. This is the money that pays for the nuts and bolts of a degree. He's paid an additional $465 for books, so far, including $120 for one math book.
About 40 percent of tuition goes to pay for faculty salaries and benefits at the university. The Seattle campus has about 1,700 full-time faculty members plus several hundred graduate teaching assistants.
Tremblay, who wants to be a dentist, is taking two tough classes in math and chemistry, what the UW calls gatekeeper courses. It's a big change from high school. Take his chemistry class at Kane Hall: It is held in an auditorium that looks like it belongs in a multiplex theater instead of a classroom building. It even has movie screens.
Tremblay files into the room at 9:30 a.m. and grabs a seat amid a sea of 520 students.
The professor, James Callis, does several experiments, plopping materials in water that fizzle and pop. He jokes with the audience over the loudspeaker system. "If you in the front row catch fire, remember to stop, drop and roll."
But the experiments lose some pizzazz magnified on movie screens with a black and white overhead projector. And the lecture isn't Shakespeare. "The cation is always named first and the anion second. ..."
Callis acknowledges the class is large but notes comparable universities have larger lecture classes. The course he teaches is also hard, he says: "We insist that students know their stuff. We grade typically harder than other departments."
Tremblay says he was a little shocked the first time he walked into the auditorium: "There are so many students and the classes are so big."
At Mercer Island High School, he was able to become friends with his teachers; at the UW, he spends more time with graduate teaching assistants, or TAs, than the professors teaching the courses. "It's not a bad thing," he says. "It's just different."
Callis says he'd like one-on-one time with students but doesn't have the time, given his other duties, such as research in molecular spectroscopy.
As a result, Callis says, he's more of a remote authority figure. "Most of them don't confide in me," he says. "They relate to the TAs."
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