The troubling aspect of today's Big 5 is that its only news if Villanova loses. Sort of a localized "anybody but Duke" syndrome. Like Duke, VU has a better rep in Jersey, NY, Connecticut, Boston & DC than it does in its home city of Philadelphia. I believe that's a direct result of disenfranchising day hops through exorbitant tuition increases. The cost of a Villanova education has risen 1500% since 1978 whereas the cost of living has only risen 500%. That's economically indefensible. I realize there is a seemingly inexhaustable supply of Muffys and Buffys (children of privilege) to populate Villanova, BC and Georgetown, but must we emulate what we think the Ivy's are like? In reality, the top tier Catholic schools are more exclusive and represent a far narrower slice of the general population that do today's Ivy's. If VU wants to be hated from Bensalem to Drexel Hill than congratulations- we've done it.
I've heard it wispered recently that Fr. Peter wants to deemphasize legacy admits in favor of the underserved populations. If so, that's a step in tune with our Catholicity (a new term we are hearing in the Archdioces of Washington), but what about admitting promising candidates culled from the ranks of the Middle Class? And what about restructuring tuition so that they can cobble together the financial resources necessary to attend Villanova without drowning in debt post-graduation? I'd like an answer to that question in particular.
This post was edited on 12/8 3:03 PM by DCFRANKLIN
