Re: Here’s a Thought

Stan Horowitz replies to Mr. Begley:

Reducing the number of accepted students is a really silly idea. Keep your eye on the ball. Financial aid is just money the College is giving to itself.

Put, I hope, more clearly, there are large fixed costs involved in running Dartmouth. As long as the additional students pay more than the marginal costs associated with them the school is ahead of the game. I bet that the marginal cost is markedly less than $12,000.

I’m not sure what the marginal costs are, but remember that there are opportunity costs associated with the sunk costs of maintaining Dartmouth, paying faculty, etc. To get at those, though, need-blind admissions would have to go out the window, which really isn’t an attractive option.