There is
much to like about the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). I have a
particular fondness for MIT because, after World War II, it took my father as a
student and transformed him from a rough kid from a rough neighbourhood in St.
Paul, Minnesota into a Physicist. There are other reasons to like MIT, but I
think prospective undergraduate students in the UK do not think enough about
MIT and places like it.
The biggest
reason for this, I think, is sticker shock. The price tag of 4 years of
undergraduate education “ain’t cheap.” The advertised tuition and fees for MIT at present are $42,050. Ouch,
and if you add to that living costs this seems well outside the “normal” idea
of what UK students could afford unless they are well heeled or living off the
civil lists. But there is more to the picture than this. Remember excellent but
poor students get through MIT (and similar places), they have for a long time,
and will for the foreseeable future. How does this work? Let’s consider some
data using MIT
financial reports. Because I had it to hand, I have focused on 2011 data.
In 2011,
MIT had about 10,566 students. This may be a surprise. MIT is not a huge
teaching factory. In fact it is about half the size of the University of Cambridge
in terms of student intake. In their financial statements for 2011, MIT
reported a total of $457,494,000 of tuition, but there is some fine print.
Nearly half of this was discounted in cash terms. Institute funds and external
sponsors provided $294,055,000 of tuition support to students. This left a net
of $163,439,000. This leaves an average of about $15,468 as the cost of tuition
and fees. Factor in exchange rates and you get £9,668/student. This is not much more than the maximum fees at
a UK University.
There is more to this. Financial support of tuition is need
based, so if you are from a family really struggling financially, you will pay
less. If you are an excellent student and worried about a place in the UK,
particularly if you are not one of the rich and privileged whose family could
afford to send them to one of the feeder public schools for Oxford and
Cambridge, it is worth trying.
There is
further aid for students. An additional $30,435,000 is provided to students as
stipends (I think this is mostly for graduate students but I could be wrong)
and $85,335,000 in salaries. Let’s do the maths. Add this all up and $409,825,000
of support is given to students in various forms of financial aid: tuition
support, stipends, and salary. Net cost to students is: $47,669,000. This amounts to $4,511/student (about £2,819) which is LESS than the cost under the
old fee regime. At present there is nowhere in the UK that comes close.
This does
not mean you can expect a free ride. If you get aid you will still have to work
like a dog. If you can pay, you will be expected to. Aid or not, the education
you will receive is as good as it gets. MIT really is one of the best. It
really is excellent and it got there by accepting hardworking gifted students.
MIT is not
a government run institution. It is a private, non-profit organisation and can
accept who it pleases. There is no special regime for “home” students (US
students have access to some types of grants and loans that foreign students do
not). Look at the financial reports; the majority of student financial aid comes
from MIT itself ($284,030,000). And, ... for my money, I would take MIT over
Cambridge. MIT is not a bastion of students with old money and privilege. It is
not the playground of Etonions. It transformed my father who grew up in a neighbourhood
frequented by the likes of John Dillinger and Machine Gun Kelly into a man who
told NASA they could turn off the guidance system in Apollo 13 to save power, one
of many who got men to the moon and brought them back safely.
Yes, I have
a soft spot for MIT. But I suspect if you dig deep into the finances of places
like Harvard, CalTech, Oberlin, and others like them (I took my first degree
from Reed College) you will find a similar story. Many have “need blind
admissions” and good systems in place to support students who need their
support. Looking at this year’s
information MIT provides need based financial aid to 62% of undergraduate
students. Look at the data above, do the maths. If you can get in, chances are
you can afford to go.
