Is JHU worth the money?

The economy is struggling, the world markets are down, and consumer confidence has fallen. But even through economic woes and terror attacks, little seems to deter families from the pricey proposition of sending their children to expensive private schools. Through both the good economic times and the bad, would-be freshmen line up every spring for the mere chance to shell out the $35,000 a year it costs to attend a private university like Johns Hopkins.

But in the end, is the cost of Hopkins really worth it when a public school's $11,000 per year tuition beckons? Is the education really better here than at a less expensive school? Does a Hopkins grad enter the world after college with advantages over a grad from generic State U.?

Not surprisingly, the answer invariably depends on whom you ask. From the student perspective, the value of college is increasingly measured in much broader terms than the traditional notion of attending a school based solely on the quality of education. This rising collective student sentiment has not fallen on deaf ears. In fact, college administrators have taken notice and have begun to strongly emphasize the idea that there's more to college life than professors, books, and tests.

This growing inclination across campuses nationwide seems to be aimed at ensuring that high paying students are getting not just an education, but that they are gaining a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience by attending a private university. In recent years, college administrators at schools like Harvard and Yale have engineered a marked shift away from focusing solely on the value of a private school education to emphasizing the entire campus life that one encounters. It's called the "undergraduate experience" and to some it offers further proof that colleges are doing more than ever to make sure that students are not only well educated, but that they're they are also happy.

The happiness factor cannot possibly be overrated when considering whether a pricey private college is worth the money.

Recent news reports of a spate of suicides at M.I.T are not exactly the press coverage that admissions board members relish. Instead, the image of a happy, youthful, and well-educated student body speaks volumes about the school itself and sends the message to parents that they need not fret unnecessarily about their child. Schools that once boasted about an academic program of the highest rigor have been forced to question whether that is what parents and their children want to hear. Parents are, after all, the ones whose deep pockets keep private schools in business. But student opinions about their schools are vital resources that future applicants use to gauge whether to consider attending or applying to a school. Word of mouth and student satisfaction are hugely important. As a result, now more than ever, schools are sending the powerful message that their students are not only getting a top-notch education, but that they are happy.

They're banking on the age-old truth that many college students have an unexplainable, sanguine inclination to talk about their school like it is one-of-a-kind, a gem that derives from the perfect mix of ingredients and puts all other schools to shame. The examples are as widespread as the number of students flooding MSE the night before an Orgo exam. Hopkins students refer to "the beach" with a mix of awe and fondness as if such a structure is the eighth wonder of the world. But we aren't the only school to have a grassy area where students do a mix of studying, gossiping, and exercising. In fact, with only a few notable exceptions, many universities have similar areas also called "the beach," or at least named with a similar connotation in mind. But the example isn't limited to a grassy area on our college campus. Rather, it's emblematic of a much bigger theme involving students as a whole, one that is potentially dangerous to the notion of expensive, private universities. If so many college students think of their school as the best one and "the only one for them," is it possible that they all found the perfect schools for themselves?

The more reasonable, yet unpopular assumption is that the average college student would have been happy in more than one place. If the latter is true, maybe the ones whose parents are shelling out $35,000 a year are being swindled. That line of thinking takes the discussion back to the education debate, one in which parents are almost always more engaged than their kids. A plethora of experts have long contended that generally a private school education is better than one from a public school. Proponents of private schools tout that these schools can be more selective which means that they can teach more effectively because all of the students enter on a similar level. Private schools also tend to have fewer students, which permits for smaller classes, and more one-on-one or small group interaction with professors. They often have higher paid staff as well, which leads one to reasonably assume that they can attract the most qualified candidates. The boring but conventional benchmarks for measuring a good education seem to corroborate these claims.

A school's student-faculty ratio is one such indicator because it measures the individual attention a student can receive at any given school. Hopkins' 10:1 ratio is comparable with its peers, bested by schools like Harvard and Princeton, both which have slightly better averages, at 8:1, but much better than most public counterparts. The University of California San Diego has a 17:1 ratio, University of Texas; Austin's ratio is 19:1.

The much maligned, yet hugely influential U.S. News and World Report rankings index of America's Best Colleges also publishes an annual indicator of a school's educational prowess. For better or worse, schools that are ranked highly in the U.S. News rankings usually experience an increase in applications in the following years, giving the publication unprecedented power. In the overall index for the 2001-2002 year, out of the top fifty doctoral schools in the nation, nineteen of the top twenty schools are private. But the choice is not as clear-cut as it might seem. Experts also suggest that there is something to be said for the educational value that no index, report, or study can measure. For public universities, the biggest academic selling point almost certainly derives from the perception of increased diversity inside and outside of the classroom. From the sheer numbers of students that public schools on the whole accept, it is true that public schools have the opportunity to encourage diversity through increased interaction with people of different ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and intellectual levels.

While private schools have certainly made strides, numbers don't lie and the total number of students enrolled in public schools compared to those in private schools is staggeringly slanted. With the increased number of students enrolled at public universities comes the increased chance that the student body reflects a cross section of society. Feel like you're going in circles yet? If you do, you're not alone, which brings us back to the question at hand.

The bottom line is that there are advantages to both public and private universities. Most often, students should make the decision about whether the cost of a school is worthwhile by weighing the positives against the negatives. Unfortunately, there is no simple formula, no quick solution to determine whether the cost of Hopkins, or any private school is worth it. Often times there are a few adequate ways to answer the question, but just one way that really makes sense: only you can decide what's best.