Cooper Union has announced a plan to keep undergraduate tuition free, amid its financial troubles (and it's a plan that, uh, doesn't involve selling its fancy building): Charge graduate students tuition. more ›

After making parents insane from the admissions process, it seems that more and more private schools are then putting the screws to parents by asking them how much they'll donate. And don't think $200 or even $1,000 will cut it: The NY Times begins its story by describing how one woman, whose three-year-old son was at a $21,000/year private school, was approached:

[Rachael Combe] received an invitation from the head of the school to come by for a visit. She assumed the meeting was to discuss how her son was adapting to the school’s curriculum. more ›

One former-Ivy Leaguer won't have to sell nearly as much cocaine to cover the costs this semester as he enrolls at City College, where annual tuition is 88 percent cheaper than at neighboring Columbia University. But it's unlikely Michael Wymbs will be slinging anytime soon if he knows what's good for him—he's taking a plea deal that includes five years probation and court-ordered drug treatment. more ›

Hold on, Columbia University students—you may not be able to major in "Mic-Checking The Man" anymore! A course offered by the Ivy League school's Anthropology Department titled "Occupy the Field" has been evicted from the school's course bulletin Was Tony Bologna involved? more ›

In the wake of Cooper Union's announcement that they may have to start charging tuition for the first time in 102 years, many people are calling BS on the school, disbelieving that it's actually as broke as it claims it is. more ›

Cooper Union, the school that asks questions like "A clock or device which redefines the concept of time" on its application and has been entirely tuition-free since 1902, may be forced to start charging students to combat the harsh economy. more ›

Now, more than ever, college is crazy expensive and the U.S. Department of Education has created a website that will make parents of prospective college students faint. more ›

With Riverdale Country School raising their tuition to $40,450 a year for high school students in 2011-2012, New York private schools have topped the $40K mark for the first time. Though the head of Riverdale tells the WSJ that he's "perturbed" by the rising education costs, he says that "our parents rightfully make it a priority for their children to have the opportunity of an amazing education and are willing to pay for that." Yes, but once you factor in tutoring that's the same price as tuition, and the apartment you have to buy your kids when they graduate, educating your kids costs a lot more than $40K a year. Nevertheless, money and influence do buy achievement. more ›

Among the many things in Andrew Cuomo's new budget are some hefty cuts into the State and City University of New York funds, which has educators and students from both institutions nervous. At a joint Assembly and Senate fiscal hearing yesterday reps from both spoke out against the cuts (which Cuomo insists can be handled without a tuition hike) and asked the legislature again for the authority to control their own tuitions. more ›

Can you put a price on fame? How about $20,000? That's how much two New Jersey parents owe the Department of Education for out-of-state tuition to Fiorello H. La Guardia School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts. For the past five years, Jill Schifter and Anthony Maulella of North Bergen, NJ have been using a friend's address on the Upper East Side to keep their daughter enrolled in the prestigious school without having to pay tuition. But they got caught. more ›

Last year Kecia Pitt sued the Nurturing Center, a Queens facility she’d entrusted with the care of her son. She claimed neglect, but now the daycare is fighting back accusing the disgruntled mom of defaming its good name by spreading flyers that satirically rename it "The Torturing Center." "Is your child often sick, have a lot of diaper rashes and cry out at night? Because they don't clean, change the babies or comfort them when they cry,” reads the copy. “The Nurturing Center is one of the WORST daycare centers I ever sent my son to." more ›

CUNY isn't just the perfect setting for racist shouting matches and questions of diversity among its faculty; it's also a very popular destination for transfer students! For its upcoming fall 2010 semester, CUNY has received more than 16,000 transfer applications from students at other schools, an increase of 77.5 percent compared to last year. This may be because CUNY only charges $4,600 at the four-year schools and $3,150 at the two-year colleges, according to the Post. CUNY Senior Vice Chancellor Jay Hershenson seems to agree, telling the tabloid, "Affordability plus an enhanced CUNY reputation . . . simply trumps going into debt." Sure, but do cool bands like Man Man play at CUNY? more ›

Dropping $52,000/year for courses like a Guitar Hero class—what recession? NYU tells the Post it has "enrolled its largest student body in decades this year...More than 21,600 undergraduates enrolled at NYU this school year -- up nearly 400 from last year -- while more than 18,200 graduate students enrolled -- a one-year spike of nearly 800 enrollees." The school's enrollment has also increased 33% since 1990. more ›

One recent college grad in The Bronx is taking the well-trodden path of looking for a paycheck from her alma mater in the face of a job market that has quickly revealed how little a bachelor's degree actually qualifies you for. Except for 27-year-old Trina Thompson, she's not simply hitting up Monroe College for her first post-collegiate job—she's suing them to get her tuition back, saying that they have not done enough to help her find work. Thompson is suing Monroe for $70,000, claiming that the staff members at their career services department "have not tried hard enough to help me" since she graduated in April with an Information Technology degree. Thompson's mother told the Post that she supports the suit. She said, "She's angry...She put all her faith in them, and so did I. They're not making an effort...We're going to be homeless, and we'll still have a student loan to pay." A spokesman for the school laughed off the lawsuit, saying it "is completely without merit" and "does not deserve further consideration." more ›

After over 24 hours of occupying the student center (which started Wednesday night), NYU students part of "Take Back NYU" continue to occupy the Kimmel Center, hoping the administration will meet their demands. The demands begin with "Full legal and disciplinary amnesty for all parties involved in the occupation" and "Full compensation for all employees whose jobs were disrupted during the course of the occupation." and also include "Public release of NYU’s annual operating budget, including a full list of university expenditure," "Disclosure of NYU’s endowment holdings," and "annual scholarships be provided for thirteen Palestinian student." There's also something for non-NYU folks: "The general public have access to Bobst Library." more ›

Early-decision applications to Cooper Union, which does not charge tuition, have skyrocketed this year, the Times reports, surprising no one. The school is experiencing a 70 percent surge in applications so far this year, compared to annual increases of 5 percent to 10 percent over the last decade. Emphasizing the obvious, the dean of admissions tells the Times, "I’m pretty confident that the economy played a big role. You probably had a lot of parents who said: ‘Look, I know you’re looking at Cooper Union. You ought to make it your first choice.' " Overall, the school expects to receive 3,300 applications for 265 spots in the Class of 2013, making the already competitive process even more cutthroat. more ›

Cornell University has lost $1.45 billion of its endowment in the second half of 2008—due to "reduced state funding, endowment losses and a drop in donations" according to Bloomberg News—so now the school is cutting $50 million from the Ithaca campus budget and $13 million from the medical school here in NYC. The News also reports, "Undergraduates at the university's 10 privately endowed colleges will pay 4% more next year - sending tuition to a whopping $37,750. Tuition at four other Cornell colleges that receive state funding will rise by 7.2%, bringing the total to $21,610 for instate residents." NYU also announced its endowment lost 19%, bringing it to about $2 billion. The NY Times notes that college endowments "fell about 23 percent on average in the five months ended Nov. 30." more ›

The cost of tuition at Columbia and NYU has passed the $50,000 mark; a year at NYU now costs $50,182, including room and board, up 5.9% from last year. And Columbia now sets you back $51,866, the Sun reports. But according to NYU professor Amy Ellen Schwartz, it's actually a sweet deal when you look at the big picture: "What is true about understanding the college market, is that the economics are very complicated. In the more expensive universities the actual value of the education spending is even more than tuition. If you ask me, is it worth $50,000? You probably get $100,000 worth of education at somewhere like Yale." What a pity she's stuck slumming it at NYU. more ›

There's a lesson that parents should learn before signing contracts for a private school: always read the fine print. The NY Times tells the story of a Soho couple (David and Michele Bender) whose daughter won a coveted, if pricey--$26,000/year--spot in the kindergarten program at the West Village's Little Red School House (pictured). more ›

The total annual cost (including room and board) of NYU has gone up 65% in the past decade and next year it will reach an all-time high of $50,182 – a 5.9% increase from last year. The Washington Square News notes that the university is cash poor, drawing 60 percent of its resources from tuition. In an attempt to soften the blow, NYU plans to increase need-based aid to "more than $150 million" total. more ›

For three years straight, NYU has dominated the annual Princeton Review "College Hopes and Worries" survey, coming in as the #1 “dream school” for college-bound students. But now NYU’s reign of dreams has turned into a humiliating nightmare, as the 2008 survey shows the university plummeting to the #4 slot, bested by Harvard, Stanford and Princeton. more ›