B.U.: Boo Hoo

Sunday's New York Times had an article about the Boston University admissions and financial aid offices. We learn a lot about how these offices work, and it's mostly unflattering. See if you can find what I mean in the passage below:

For example, last year, Boston University gave $43 million in institutional aid to incoming freshmen. To end up at that figure, it offered $150 million to accepted students (27 percent took the offer). This year, despite a budget deficit for the university and freezes on hiring and new construction projects, the school is offering even more — $160 million — with hopes of spending $45 million. Ms. McGuire says the higher aid figure recognizes that more people need help, that B.U. raised tuition by $1,370 (almost 4 percent), and that it will very likely need to offer more aid to get enough students to attend. “We are assuming not as many people will take the offer in this economy,” she says. “We are building that in.”

Did you find it? The trick is to do a little mental math and know where to get accurate information. Boston University allocated $43 million in financial aid last year, and plans to raise that to $45 million this year, an increase of 4.65 percent. At the same time, they're also raising tuition $1,632 (the article's figures are wrong), from $35,418 to $37,050, which calculates out to a 4.61 percent increase. In other words, in possibly the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Boston University, with endowment assets of $1.1 billion, is generously increasing financial aid by a net of .04 percent.