College Paying Students NOT to Attend

Arthur Vidro
On Consumerism
A local college is paying students not to attend.

Wacky but true.

Vermont’s Middlebury College, struggling with an enrollment boom, is offering $10,000 to upperclassmen to delay their education to ease overcrowding.

The unusual pay-to-delay offer comes as the small liberal arts school is about to burst at the seams. The college typically has 2,500 to 2,600 students, but enrollment this fall could be upward of 2,845, a college spokesperson said.

The surge is caused by the return of students who took time off during the pandemic, not by the incoming freshman class numbering 600, school officials announced.

The payment offer was announced on July 31. The deadline for applying for the money was August 3. Sixty-three applications were submitted, according to Dean of Students Derek Doucet.

The pay-to-delay offer was targeted to the first 30 juniors or seniors who opt to take a leave of absence for the fall 2023 semester and the subsequent winter term.

Offered on a first-come, first-serve basis, the $10,000 is available only to students who would otherwise live on campus in the fall. Students who get paid to take a leave of absence will, for the duration of the leave, lack access to the school’s health insurance, its health services, and its counseling services; however, the 30 students will have access to the school’s Center for Careers and Internships, its Student Financial Services, and to the class deans.

The money offered is far from the cost of schooling there. Middlebury’s 2023-2024 school year prices, per semester, are $32,400 for tuition and $9,300 for on-campus housing and meals (plus a $240 student activity fee).

The college has been dealing with an unusually large student body since the Covid-19 pandemic, when many students took leaves of absence and as a result are delayed in completing their education. Current estimates for fall 2023 enrollment are close to 2,800 students living on-campus, according to Doucet.

The college broke ground last month on a new freshman dorm, but it won’t be completed until 2025, officials said.

Middlebury is not alone in facing an on-campus housing crunch.

California State Polytechnic University has sent students to nearby hotels in an attempt to meet housing demand.

The University of Utah is asking alumni to open their homes to students for $5,000 per semester.

Somehow, the situation at Middlebury sounds like a gag from the college-based Marx Brothers comedy film “Horsefeathers.”

Try to picture Professoor Wagstaff (played by Groucho), the new president of Huxley College, telling Harpo and Chico: “We need athletes for the football team. We’ll even pay you money to attend our school.”

Chico: How much you pay us?

Groucho: One hundred dollars to each of you to attend. We’ll pay you even more if you don’t attend. The farther you stay away, the more we’ll pay. How much do you want to stay away from our college entirely?

Chico: For us not to attend? You can’t afford it.

Harpo: (Honk! Honk!)