Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-15
GIRLS IN COLLEGE.
It Is q Delusion That It Costs More to
Send Them Than Boys.
THE FIGURES TO SHOW FOR IT
Wealth and Poverty Do Not Count for Much
in the Great Schools.
MATERIAL BENEFIT OF EDUCATION
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH

| WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATCH.1
"And then it costs so much more to edu.
cate girl than boy" said q young man
in summing up the financial advantages
which one of his sex has over girl "Now
fellow can get through college on a very
little if he has to, but girls schools are e1.
pensive."
That is to say, the sister of the boy who
goes to college can be given the correspond
ing education, to which her position and
her tastes entitle her, only at much greater
expense than is necessary for her brother.
Is this so? Does the undoubted advantage,
SO far as expense is concerned, which the
young man has in travel, or dress or amuse-
ment apply also to education?
If the girl goes to boarding school, in
many cases it does. A charge for board and
tuition of 81, 900 is not unusual; but fairer
compromise is between the cost of education
of the same grade for the boy and his sister.
If, when he starts to college, she wishes
to do likewise, how much of drain on the
family treasury will it be to CRAFTY her?
The Belief Seems Universal
ST don't see how you can afford to have a
daughter at Vassar," said one frank parent
to another; "why, my son at Yale costs me
s., 900 year."
The implication was that college girl
must be still costlier luxury; and another
father was hesitating about sending his
daughter to college because he assumed that
the charges would be about 81 900, and that
her supplementary needs would demand
about 81, 900 more.
| A tabulated statement of charges at the
different colleges for women is a good be-
ginning in disposing of such impressions.
AT Cornell the annual tuition fee is 500,
and the cost of living in Ithaca is estimated
at from So to 81 week. A deposit for
| laboratory work is required. The cost OF
| text books, instruments, ETC., is placed at
| from S25 to $75 per annum, and from 1926
to $500 is given as ga fair estimate" of the
| yearly expenses of student. At Sage Col
| lege, the dormitory especially reserved for
women, the cost for "board, rent of furnished
room, fuel and light" varies from S. to $6 so
a week. A student occupying alone one of
the best rooms pays Sc 30 a week. Two
occupying one of the less desirable rooms
pay S5 week each.
At the University of Michigan matricu-
lation fee of $40 is demanded from citizens
of Michigan and S25 from students outside
of the State. In addition, an annual fee is
required, which in the department of litera-
ture, science and art, is $40 for Michigan
students, and $50 for all others. Laboratory
expenses are estimated as on an average,
81 20 week for each course. but vary with
the prudence and economy of the student"
Board and loding can be obtained in private
families for from So to IS week, and clubs
are formed in which the cost of board is
from 81 SO to 50 so a week. The average
annual expenses of a student, including
clothing and incidentals, are placed at about
$370. There are no dormitories or commons
connected with the university.
At the Famous Women's Colleges.
At the Wellesley the price of board and
tuition, including heating and lights, is $3.50
a year. Of this amount $3.50 is for tuition.
The students assist in the domestic and
clerical work of the college, giving about
three-quarters of an hour to it daily. At
Smith the tuition is S100, and the charge for
board and furnished rooms in any of the
college houses is 81 80 year. Board can
be obtained in private families at from S4 to
So a week. Washing is so cents dozen.
Students in the laboratories pay the cost of
the materials they use, and the articles they
break.
At Bryn Mawr the tuition is $780, Other
charges are itemized as follows: Board,
$3.50 year; residence in the college halls,
exclusive of board, is $125, $3.50, or in
special cases S175 and $3.50. The charge for
board, residence and tuition is placed at
board and residence includes all expense
of service, heating and light, except open
fires and washing. The charge of washing,
at dozen pieces week, is S1S year. Ex-
ira washing is at 80 cents dozen.
Vassar begins its statement of expenses
with the declaration that sit is the aim of
the college to avoid all extra charges in its
proper work" The charge to all students
who reside in the college is S40O. This in
cludes tuition in all college studies. board,
heat and lighting, the use of a furnished |
pieces weekly. No charge is made for
chemicals, or for breakage in the laboratory.
Since there are at the Harvard annex, as |
at the University of Michigan, no dormito-
ries or commons connected with the insti- |
tuition, the living expenses of a student are |
to degree within her own control. Board |
and rooms in Cambridge are from Sc to $14 |
a week. The full tuition fee for the year |
is 5000 and in addition, students in botany, |
chemistry, physics and zoology pay labo- |
ratory fee of S. in each course. The fee for |
q single course is $75, for a half course, $40. |
IncidentaIs Depend on the Student
As to expense of college life beyond |
these fixed charges, no hard and fast esti- |
mate is possible 1t is largely what the |
student makes it. College life works no
miracle, and the girl who has been extrava-
CANT or careless for Is years is likely to
her expenditures for the next four
in very much the same fashion. However,
she will find at college certain restraints
In the first place, opportunities for the
spending of money will be actually cur
tailed. The colleges for women are for the
most part country colleges, with all of the |
quietude and simplicity in their daily life
that that implies, and the students are,
moreover, not as rule from those classes
of the community among whom extrava-
gance aourishes. College girls come for
the most part from well-ordered homes,
where the moderate family income is care
fully and intelligently managed. A con-
siderable proportion also are girls who
must support themselves, and are prepar-
ing to do so.
A fair number are rich. But there are
differences between the rich boy at college
and the rich girl "We have no better
students than the very poor girls" said a
professor at Vassar once, Except the very
rich ones"
The reason is plain. The conventional
pleasures of girlhood and young ladyhood
ire so completely at the command of the
.ich girl that to turn away from them for
our years of college life implies a life of
'tudy and an appreciation of what the col
ege training can give that is corrective
or many of the follies expected Of the jeu-
lesse doree