Connecticut College is a not-for-profit educational institution that is very expensive to attend, and I find that juxtaposition ironic. What should be the primary goal of the College? Should it be to maximize revenue to build facilities that are arguably unnecessary? Or should it be attracting and educating the best and brightest from around the world who can then apply their minds to make the world a better place?
A year of study at Connecticut College costs more than $60,000. In 2013, the median household income in the United States was nearly $52,000. The annual average wage in the world is $10,000. Think about that. The cost of studying here exceeds what at least half of American households earn yearly, and is some six times the annual average wage of the world.
Connecticut College does provide need-based financial aid to all students both domestic and international, The college does have, if I were to put it charitably, a preference for students who can pay the full tuition. This is especially true among international students, and it invariably creates regional and class imbalances. After all, given how high the tuition is, whoever can pay that much money definitely belongs to the richest of the rich – a tiny proportion of the world’s population.
What if Conn was an institution in a dystopic anarcho-capitalist world that charged all students the sticker price? How different would it be? For one thing, the uniformity of the student body at the Conn situated in such a parallel universe would mean that class issues, an often ignored but extremely important topic for discussion at our college, would not exist. But since students from the median household in the United States, let alone the world, would not be able to even dream of studying here, Conn as an institution and the experiences of the students studying here would be all the poorer for it (pun intended).
Moreover, hundreds of students excelling here now would have been deprived of the education and the exposure that studying at Conn gives them. One of my professors mentioned recently that some of her best students have been on financial aid. This is really relevant for international students who, were it not for money, may have ended up at a better known institution.
The good thing is that for the most part, no such dystopia has manifested itself at Conn yet. The College maintains a pretty substantial aid budget of over $35 million (for 52% of the student body). As the Financial Aid section of the College website states “Our goal is to support outstanding students who could not otherwise afford to attend Connecticut College.”
Unfortunately, unlike domestic students, international students depend entirely on the institution’s generosity since they do not get any financial support from the US government. There are over 3,000 colleges and universities in the United States and only a small minority of them provide need-based financial aid to international students. Conn is one of the few that do, which makes it attractive for international students like myself, whose families cannot afford to pay the full price of what colleges in the United States levy on us.
I caught up with Bridget Moore, Associate Director of Admission, to learn more about the situation of international students who seek admission to the college. In our conversation, she restated the College’s aim to attract diverse students from all over the world, not ignoring any region, and to ensure that students all over the world have access to a Connecticut College education. She added “although the college does review its policies from time to time, which I believe is a good thing, the College’s commitment to its core principles will not change.”
She talked about the many issues that affect why international students come to Conn, including the liberal arts curriculum at the college that attracts certain students, and for which interest varies from country to country. Admission to Conn is generally more competitive for international students than it is for domestic students, especially for those requiring high amounts of aid, she said. “Moreover,” she continued, “although Conn is exceptional among US colleges and universities, it is pretty standard in its peer group of colleges.”
Opinions on the financial aid provided by Conn vary in the international student community. There are some who are, quite simply, thankful to have found a college that gives them an American college education at an affordable rate, but there are others who are not satisfied with the amount of aid that the college has provided them with.
Another issue for international students is the competition for the limited number of on-campus jobs for which they are eligible. Because of visa requirements, international students can only work on campus for a maximum of 20 hours per week, and further only “regular” jobs, not work study jobs.
An international senior talked to me about how she found the Financial Aid Office a little inaccessible when it came to catering to the needs of international students. This is in contrast to many other Ivies and even little Ivies, which have a lot more resources devoted to assisting international students with their applications for aid. Given the complications of applying for financial aid as an international student, such inaccessibility can be a real challenge, especially since students apply for financial aid on an annual basis.
By providing students from around the world the opportunity to fulfill their dream of studying in the United States through financial assistance, the College has helped fulfil many aspirations. That the College does this, given some of the constraints under which it operates, needs to be appreciated. However, they College may inevitably have to constrain financial aid for international students with the intention of attracting wealthier partons.
The College should know that pursuing such a policy would quite surely end up being detrimental, not only affecting the kinds of students who attend Conn and the quality of work done here, but also solidifying the college’s already pretty strong elitist streak. I strongly urge the College to improve, maintain and expand facilities and resources that make it possible for students from all over the world to study here. •
