What does this mean for kids in any state that now has a prestigious, world class public school? What does it mean for Washington State?
A good way to find out is to compare top level medical schools. The table below ranks the top ten US medical schools by research reputation. US medical schools are the top in the world. We have a true sellers market. Application rates range as low as 1/30 and tuition does not matter!
Only one school in the top 10, Washington University in St. Louis, accepts more than 10% of all applicants and its tuition and fees are amongst the highest. (our school, the University of Washington actually has a higher tuition rate for out of state students than does Wash. U!).
In other words, it is very likely that the UW School of Medicine would do better as a private school than it does a the “public trough.” Without having to compete with funding for K-12 or food for starving kids, UWSOM might be richer!
Who would lose? …. WA state kids. As an elite school, UWSOM could charge high fees AND select only the top students from the world wide market.
A good comparison may be with the Huskies. How many WA state kids are good enough to get into the UW as football players? Even if our kids could afford the $52,504/year tuition, many of them probably could not get in!
So, is UW a bargain? Well, that depends on how you look at these data. Based on in state tuition plus fees alone UW is the cheapest, For an out of state student wanting to attend the UWSOM, UW tops the list as the MOST expensive!
MEDICAL SCHOOL
tuition and fees: UW: instate: 23542 out of state: 52504 … cheapest in US for instate
… most expensive for out of state.
| COSTS at 10 top | US medical | schools | ||||||||||||||||||
| . | Tuition | fees | tuition + fees | Rm & board | total cost/yr | total debt | ||||||||||||||
| . | Harvard | 45050 | 3467 | 48517 | 12900 | 61417 | 106366 | |||||||||||||
| . | Penn | 43960 | 3212 | 47172 | 18796 | 65968 | 119800 | |||||||||||||
| . | Hopkins | 41200 | 4810 | 46010 | 17986 | 63996 | 102376 | |||||||||||||
| . | Wash Univ | 48800 | 0 | 48800 | 10542 | 59342 | 100275 | |||||||||||||
| . | Duke | 44482 | 3221 | 47703 | 41160 | 88863 | 112792 | |||||||||||||
| . | Stanford | 44196 | 621 | 44817 | 24162 | 68979 | 90006 | |||||||||||||
| . | UCSF | 0 | 30474 | 30474 | 19636 | 50110 | 105314 | |||||||||||||
| . | out of state | 12245 | 30474 | 42719 | 19636 | 62355 | ||||||||||||||
| . | Yale | 45600 | 500 | 46100 | 11590 | 57690 | 122247 | |||||||||||||
| . | Univ of Wash | 23049 | 475 | 23524 | 15843 | 39367 | 121193 | |||||||||||||
| . | out of state | 52029 | 475 | 52504 | 15843 | 68347 | ||||||||||||||
| . | Columbia | 46212 | 4750 | 50962 | 15531 | 66493 | 131385 | |||||||||||||
| . | Univ Mich | 27926 | 4750 | 32676 | 15531 | 48207 | 131385 | |||||||||||||
| . | out of state | 44666 | 4750 | 49416 | 15531 | 64947 |
from USN&WR
This is not lost on the president. In response to a question at the senate meeting from a medical faculty member she said that there is no way UW Medical School tuition isn’t going up a lot, given that it’s currently low, the demand is there, and students will pay it. She did not address how this might break down between in-state and out-of-state.
I am certain it is not lost on Phyllis.
What does worry me is that we are not aggressive enough in explaining the consequences of a raise in tuition. There is a lot of emphasis on the debt it will cause and the decrease in kids able to afford UWSOM. I know these are very real issues. What is more difficult to deal with is the likely outcome for WA state if the UWSOM decreases in quality vs. the likely outcome if we were to compete as a private school.
These are Hobson’s choices. Unfortunately, the choice between K-12, cops, and food in the mouths of children is equally impossible. Where I fault Phylis, however, is that she (really her predecessors) do a poor job of explaining the unique value UW has.
All the easy choices are off the table, so let me offer a hard one. I would like to see the UW announce that it WANTS to be a PUBLIC competitor to Harvard. This wold mean:
1. divesting ourselves of UWT and UWB. The state college system is a lot better than the UW at suporting this level of education.
2. merging the Huskies and the Cougars at WSU. Seeing a semipro team as an object is pride for the state makes sense, but why do we need two of them? A high quality academic school means high standards for jocks too.
3. cutting the size of the undergrad effort to something closer to what we can serve AS A FOUR YEAR college. Mega classes are not sensible if you are serving an elite level of student who needs personal contact.
4. developing a REAL “online education” system that would allow WA state’s excellent community colleges and state colleges to efficiently use UW resources to upgrade what they can offer onsite.
5. These same services could be marketed, for profit, in the private higher ed market. This would provide a great way for boosting Whitman, Seattle Univ., PLU, Gonzaga, etc.
6. growing Bellevue, Bothell/Cascade and eventually an Everett Polytech as UW affiliated but distinct cmapuses able to serve alrger numbers of kids.