GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Students from low-income families are seeing college costs rise at a greater rate than their wealthy counterparts at several West Michigan schools, a trend that could hurt the poor as the cost of obtaining a degree continues to rise.

The trend can be seen at schools such as Hope College, Calvin College, Cornerstone University and Grand Valley State University, federal data show.

Between 2008-09 and 2011-12, net price increased by a bigger percentage for the poorest students versus their wealthy counterparts. Net price includes the total annual cost of tuition, fees, room, board, books and other expenses, minus federal, state, and institutional scholarships and grants.

However, at least one West Michigan college – Ferris State University – is bucking this trend. Net prices for Ferris’ poorest students dropped between 2008-09 and 2011-12, data show.

Related: Visit Tuition Tracker to see prices by income group at colleges nationwide

Some schools, on the other hand, had significant increases.

Students at Grand Valley State University

At Calvin College, for instance, students from families making between $30,001 and $48,000 a year saw their net price climb 29 percent. Meanwhile, students from families making more than $110,000 saw net price go up just 4 percent.

And at GVSU, net price among students from the lowest income group rose 40 percent, while costs increased 17 percent among students from the wealthiest group.

Students from wealthier families still pay more for college, but the data show the gap between what the rich and poor fork over for a degree has narrowed at some institutions, according to an analysis by The Hechinger Report and The Dallas Morning News.



Related: Database: See how price hikes have affected rich, poor, middle-income students at Michigan colleges

Colleges are using “increased amounts of their institutional grant aid more so on wealthy students than on low-income students, and we’ve seen this trend exacerbate over time,” said Mary Nguyen Barry, higher education research and policy analyst at The Education Trust.

Higher education administrators say several factors have affected trends in net price.

Among them: cuts in state grants and federal aid that hasn’t kept pace with rising costs.

In a statement, Calvin College said it strives to make an "education broadly accessible” and that the period examined captures a “very turbulent economic time.”

“We were responding to families facing unique and unforeseen economic challenges and we were adjusting our merit based scholarships in order to stay competitive with merit awards from other institutions – both of which may have shifted the balance of our aid distribution a bit toward higher income families,” the college said.

The net price data examined in this report only captures full time, beginning undergraduates who received federal financial aid. Some colleges argue it’s flawed because it doesn’t capture the entire student body.

Still, it provides among the best pictures available of how college costs have trended for various income groups.

Students at Cornerstone University move into their new dorm room.

Competing For Students

Another factor contributing to the trend: How colleges choose to structure tuition discounts and institutional aid.

To help colleges maintain enrollment, keep revenue rolling in, and raise standings in annual rankings, wealthy students are getting large discounts and institutional financial aid that many critics say should go instead to their lower-income classmates.

West Michigan schools said they’ve strived to increased need-based aid. But a competitive admissions environment often puts pressure on institutions to offer aid and discounts to the wealthiest students.

“Colleges are competing for the best and brightest students,” said Tom Bylsma, vice president for business and CFO at Hope College.

At Hope, costs for students whose families made $30,000 or less jumped 21 percent. On the other hand, costs for students whose families made more than $110,000 increased 8 percent.

However, Bylsma said net price data alone paint a misleading picture of Hope's costs.

Internal figures, which include all students and not just those receiving federal aid, show costs for the wealthiest students have increased by more than 8 percent, Bylsma said.

“You’re excluding a significant segment of the population on the upper income categories,” he said.

Colleges and universities last year gave about $8.3 billion in so-called merit aid to students whose family incomes were too high for them to qualify for government-issued Pell Grants, the College Board reports.

Pell eligibility varies based on such things as whether students are dependent on their parents and go to school full- or part-time, and the cost of their tuition. Three-quarters of Pell recipients come from families that make $30,000 or less per year.

That means public and private colleges and universities are spending more of their financial-aid budgets trying to lure higher-income students, whose families earn much more than $30,000 a year, than on meeting the financial needs of low-income ones, according to a 2011 report from the U.S. Department of Education.

Students move into residence halls at Hope College

The colleges do this because dividing even a little money among several higher-income students means each of their families will pay the rest—filling more seats at a time when enrollments are declining, and keeping much-needed revenue coming in—while giving that same amount to a single low-income student would result in a loss to the bottom line, according to The Hechinger Report, an independent education news website.

Better-off students tend to come from better-funded high schools and also typically bring the kinds of entrance-test scores and grade-point averages that make colleges look better in annual rankings than do students from poorer districts.

The result is that, since 1995, the proportion of students receiving merit aid has overtaken the proportion that gets need-based aid, nearly doubling from 24 percent to 44 percent at private institutions, and more than doubling at taxpayer-supported public universities, from eight percent to 18 percent, according to that 2011 U.S. Department of Education report.

Need Versus Merit



At Cornerstone University, 16.5 percent of the university's institutional aid was based on financial need during the 2011-12 school year, said Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Nancy Schoonmaker.

While need-based aid is an important part of Cornerstone’s mission, the Christian liberal arts college also uses other types of aid – scholarships for athletics, music and students who are “spiritually contagious” – to build the desired student body, Schoonmaker said.

“We try to offer the highest amount of need-based aid that we can possibly offer with our budget and what we’re trying to do,” she said.

At Cornerstone, costs dropped 1 percent for students whose families make more than $110,000. On the other hand, students whose families make $30,000 a year or less saw prices rise 8 percent.

Costs also grew 13 percent among students whose families make $30,001 to $48,000.

Net price for low income students has also climbed by a faster rate at some public universities.

At Grand Valley State University, net price among students from the poorest families increased 40 percent, federal data show. Meanwhile, costs among the wealthiest students increased 17 percent.

In a statement, university administrators said the number of students with financial needs “grew faster than state support to assist them.” Students from families making $30,000 or less per year grew 78.2 percent at GVSU between 2008-09 and 2011-12.

Also hurting affordability: Cuts in state appropriations and state financial aid programs aimed at helping low-income students.

“Grand Valley is trying to do everything we can to provide financial support to these students,” said Michelle Rhodes, director of financial aid at GVSU.

One university that bucked the trend in pricing was Ferris State University.

From 2008-09 to 2011-12, college costs dropped by 25 percent for the poorest students, according to federal data. Meanwhile, costs for the wealthiest students increased by 5 percent.

More than 40 percent of Ferris' students are considered low-income.

Financial Aid Director Sara Dew said Ferris continues to strive to increase need-based aid as tuition rises.

“We have a very high need population,” she said. “We’re trying to make sure that a certain percentage of your cost is covered by some type of grant.”

- Jon Marcus of the Hechinger Report and Holly K. Hacker of the Dallas Morning News contributed to this report

Brian McVicar covers education for MLive and The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at bmcvicar@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter