UVM and Middlebury College announce tuition discounts

Williams Hall on the University of Vermont campus in Burlington on Wednesday, September 20, 2023. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

" data-image-caption="Williams Hall on the University of Vermont campus in Burlington on Wednesday, September 20, 2023. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

" data-large-file="https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/uvm-campus-2-20230920-1200x799.jpg" /> Williams Hall on the University of Vermont campus in Burlington on Wednesday, September 20, 2023. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

" data-image-caption="Williams Hall on the University of Vermont campus in Burlington on Wednesday, September 20, 2023. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

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Two of Vermont’s leading universities are offering new tuition discounts to attract more students.

The University of Vermont will offer a more than 35% discount on tuition starting next fall for students from other New England states who study certain majors. And it will offer free tuition for in-state students whose households make less than $125,000.

For UVM, the discounted tuition is an effort to attract more students to the university’s recently declining ranks and recruit more graduates to join Vermont’s shrinking workforce. The university enrolls some of the most out of state students among state universities.

“We wanted to tackle affordability head on and if we do that we believe enrollment growth will come,” said Jay Jacobs, vice president of enrollment management at UVM.

Meanwhile Middlebury College similarly announced Wednesday that it will offer free tuition for all students from households that make up to $175,000 annually, starting next fall.

Both universities say they’re trying to stay competitive in the headwinds of a phenomenon dubbed the “demographic cliff.” Fewer people are projected to attend college in part because Americans started having fewer babies around the start of the Great Recession in late 2007.

Although Middlebury College, a small and prestigious liberal arts college, hasn’t seen a decline in enrollment so far, it wants to compete for students and attract more people from middle and low-income backgrounds, according to Nicole Curvin, vice president of strategic enrollment.

The college is following suit with other private universities across the country— which are slashing the prices of tuition and offering discounts to compete with public universities, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Other universities across the state, including Vermont State University, the Community College of Vermont and Saint Michael’s College also offer tuition discounts based on household income.

At Vermont’s land grant university, the effort to recruit more students comes amid serious enrollment challenges. This fall UVM’s enrollment of first-year students is down by about 14.5%, according to Jacobs.

Its freshman class is slightly bigger than the university projected last spring, when it warned that declining students would drive a $12 million budget deficit at the university.

The university was able to close that projected deficit by making cuts in “operational inefficiencies” and nixing vacant staff positions, University President Marlene Tromp said last month.

To attract more students, UVM is offering discounted tuition for students from other New England states who enroll in a major offered within three of the university’s colleges: the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Education and Social Services and the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.

The university considers the majors — which range from microbiology to social work — to be both high impact areas of study and central to the university’s brand, Jacobs said.

“We wanted to make sure that those high impact programs where students go out into the workforce and create significant and positive community impact were attractive to students from all over New England,” he said.

Tuition at UVM typically costs about $46,600 for out-of-state students and about $17,000 for in-state students for the year.

Under the discounted program, out of state students could pay more than $18,000 less, according to Jacobs.

As UVM tries to recruit enough students to fill its ranks, Middlebury College has been in a different position.

Enrollment has remained steady for the small college, according to Curvin, although it’s attracted fewer students from within New England. Tuition to attend Middlebury College costs about $72,900 this year.

While Middlebury hasn’t seen smaller ranks of students, it wants to remain competitive — and be cognizant of how much education costs impact students’ school choice.

“We’ve been thinking about the ways in which we can be supportive of a wider band of students over time,” Curvin said, including students from different income levels and backgrounds.

The new bar for free tuition is set to offer much more expansive financial aid than the university has offered in the past.

Typically, the university only offers a financial aid package that amounts to free tuition if a student comes from a household that makes $65,000 or less, Curvin said. And it usually only offers discounted tuition in the form of financial aid for those who come from households that make $80,000 or less, she said.

“What we’re trying to do is make sure that students are considering Middlebury, given the high cost of education at every institution,” Curvin said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: UVM and Middlebury College announce tuition discounts.