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When it came to selecting a college,recent Brighton High School graduateGreta Kerwin and her parents werecareful with budgeting.

They looked at public and privateuniversities, ultimately deciding on

Clarkson University. Why? Becausethey were able to aff�ord the private uni-versity in Potsdam thanks to meritscholarships.

“The tuition is very high,” mom HeidiKerwin said. “It would have been out ofthe question without it.”

With college application season herefor the high school class of 2020, fam-ilies may be experiencing sticker shock

when looking at the prices of privateand public colleges.

For families determined that a four-year degree is the best path for theirhigh school teen, the choice of collegecould make a diff�erence.

Class of 2020 could pay$70,000 or more at college

We’re winding down our own collegesearch process for our daughter, having

GETTY IMAGES

‘TEST SCORES OPEN UP SCHOLARSHIPS’

Private tuition could cost more than $70,000 a year, over $300,000 for a four-year degreeMary ChaoRochester Democrat and ChronicleUSA TODAY NETWORK

See TUITION, Page 9A

ALBANY – New York members ofCongress called Thursday for new na-tional regulations on limousine safetyas the one-year anniversary of theSchoharie crash that killed 20 peopleapproaches.

Sen. Charles Schumer joined thevictims’ families, and fellow Demo-cratic Reps. Paul Tonko and AntonioDelgado to urge Congress to toughenlaws that would require seat belts inlimos, bolster seating system stan-dards and expand safety measures.

The push comes a day after the Na-tional Transportation Safety Board re-leased a report that determined somelives may have been saved in the Oct.6, 2018, limo crash in upstate New York

New lawssoughtfor limosafety Joseph SpectorAlbany BureauUSA TODAY NETWORK

See SAFETY, Page 7A

Kenneth Buchanan’s collection ofchild porn images and videos amount-ed to some 33,000 fi�les plucked fromthe internet, but the Endicott man de-nied any of it was for his own pleasure— he was trying to keep his mind activefor other reasons.

Taken aback by this explanation,Broome County Court Judge JosephCawley questioned why Buchanan, 58,didn’t simply troll the web for images ofsunsets, daisies or pastures for some-thing to occupy his thoughts.

Buchanan, who pleaded guilty to 60

Endicott mansentenced for child porn Anthony BorrelliBinghamton Press & Sun-BulletinUSA TODAY NETWORK

See CHILD PORN, Page 2A

pressconnects.com FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2019 9A

visited more than a dozen colleges over the past yearand a half. We’ve seen price tags of over $70,000 fortuition, room and meals at private schools.

It’s a wonder how middle-class families can aff�ordthis expense, even with careful fi�nancial planning.

Gone are the days when middle-class studentscould work their way through college. The average costof all colleges for four years was $104,480 in 2016, ac-cording to Forbes. The comparable cost for the samefour-year degree in 1989, the year I graduated, was$26,902, or $52,892 when adjusted for infl�ation.

The median household income in the United Statesis $59,013, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Thecost at a four-year State University of New York schoolwith room and meals is currently $21,790 per year.

The math doesn’t add up. A middle-class familywould be mired in debt if it has not socked awayenough funds in a 529 savings plan. Middle- and up-per-middle class families often qualify for little to nofi�nancial aid.

According to a Student Loan Hero 2018 survey, 69%of college students took out student loans and gradu-ated with an average debt of $29,800. Meanwhile, 14%of their parents took out an average of $35,600 in fed-eral loans.

Merit scholarships an answer for some families

As we toured and interviewed with college admis-sions representatives, the off�er of merit scholarshipswould arise. College admissions representatives canoften give families an early read on the types of schol-arships available based on the student’s transcript andstandardized test scores.

The merit scholarships are not need-based andvary based on the student and college. They are oftenused as a recruiting tool as colleges all compete in theU.S. News and World Report ranking of colleges. Thehighly selective top tier colleges do not hand out meritscholarships because they have more qualifi�ed appli-cants than seats available; their acceptance rates arein the single digits.

But colleges hoping to compete for high-caliber stu-dents will off�er generous scholarships.

To qualify for merit scholarships, students need tobe at the higher end of grade point average and stan-dardized score ranges for that school. The range is eas-ily searchable through Google or the Naviance site.

“Merit scholarship is the only money you don’t haveto pay back,” said Mike Bergin, president of ChariotLearning, a test preparation academy in Brighton.

Students and their families come into test prep withdiff�erent goals, he said. Some are aiming for scores toget into an elite school. Many are aiming for their per-sonal best or merit scholarships.

“Test scores open up scholarships,” Bergin said.

One student’s approach

Greta Kerwin earned a signifi�cant merit scholarshipat Clarkson University and a few private scholarshipsto off�set the private school cost with a SAT score of1,310 and a GPA of 3.6. She applied to 10 schools, wasaccepted to eight, rejected by one and wait-listed forone. She is majoring in physics and likes the ability totake music classes at the Crane School at PotsdamState.

Greta Kerwin did apply to public schools, but onceshe visited Clarkson, she was hooked.

“They (SUNY) would have been much more aff�ord-able, but we’re hoping the alumni connections she’llmake will be a great way to network and get a greatjob,” Heidi Kerwin said. “She is also a legacy, so therewere a couple of other scholarships she received.”

The sticker price of Clarkson with tuition, room,meals and fees runs about $70,000. Tuition alone is$49,858 with housing at $9,534 and meals at $7,100plus other fees.

The average college tuition cost in the country, ac-cording to U.S. News and World Report, is currently$36,801 for private school and $10,116 for public, not in-cluding room and board. According to a 2019 SallieMae survey How America Pays for College, most fam-ilies now weigh fi�nancial concerns more heavily thanacademic needs when selecting a college: Nearly eightin 10 families say cost tops their decision process.

Families strain to afford tuition

Indeed, there is a tuition pricing crisis in this coun-try. Ohio’s Oberlin College President Carmen TwillieAmbar and its board of trustees wrote an eloquent let-ter to its community last year acknowledging the is-sue.

“We got here by failing to acknowledge how theworld has changed. Over the past decade we recog-nized that students and their families were demand-ing more from colleges like Oberlin. We responded. Weexpanded services for students. We upgraded ourcampus with new arts and athletic facilities and new

places for students to live. Most importantly, we in-vested in our faculty in the decade following 2007,” shewrote.

“However, enrollment remained relatively static.Then we sent the tab to our students and their fam-ilies, and we discovered that an Oberlin education,which in 2007 cost 46% of a median household’s in-come — a share that looked alarmingly high at the time— now cost a shocking 71% of the same household’sincome in 2016.”

“The pool of students graduating from high schoolis no longer growing,” Ambar continued. “Even uppermiddle class families are straining to aff�ord an Oberlineducation.”

In New York, the Excelsior program off�ers free SU-NY tuition for families earning $125,000 a year and un-der. Some New York private colleges are loweringprices, off�ering merit scholarships to qualifi�ed stu-dents.

At Alfred University, scholarships vary and maycover up to 90% of the cost of school, said PresidentMark Zupan. He recently returned from a trip to NewYork City to meet with alumni on an ambitious plan toraise over $200 million. Zupan talked about modelingAlfred after Berea College of Kentucky, which awardsevery enrolled student a no-tuition promise.

Alfred’s tuition cost is currently $33,760 for stu-dents in the college of arts and sciences, $28,386 forengineering and $20,450 for art and design, withabout $13,000 more in room, meals and fee costs.

Zupan, formerly dean of Simon School of Businessat University of Rochester prior to taking the helm atthe private Alfred University, proudly noted that Al-fred is about to win a candidate who is a Division Ifootball player over Ivy League counterparts. The rea-son: Alfred has a ceramic engineering program. Whenit comes to college, fi�t often matters more than brandnames.

Does name brand matter when it comes to colleges?It depends. Having lived and worked in New York City,I would say many of the white-collar professions arevery prestige-degree-minded, especially in law and fi�-nance. Would my brother from our immigrant familyhave gotten a job at Smith Barney as a newly mintedgraduate had he graduated from a low-rated college in-stead of New York University’s Stern School of Busi-ness? Unlikely, as the competition is stiff� for high-pay-ing fi�nance-sector jobs.

Check the dossier of the white shoe law fi�rms andyou’ll fi�nd it fi�lled with pedigree biographies. A look atthe nine current Supreme Court justices shows thatfour graduated from Harvard Law School, four fromYale Law School and Ruth Bader Ginsburg graduatedfrom Columbia Law School.

There are many professions where the degreedoesn’t matter.

And many of the fl�agship state schools are every bitas prestigious as elite private institutions at a fractionof the cost.

Food for thought as we enter the fi�nal stretch of ourjourney in fi�nding the perfect match college.

TuitionContinued from Page 1A

Greta and Bridget Kerwin of Brighton PROVIDED