August 30, 2003

U of Michigan's Spending Overkill

Here's how college tuition skyrockets. The University of Michigan changed their undergraduate admissions process to conform to a recent Supreme Court ruling. Here's the key paragraph from the Washington Post story:

As a result of the changes, officials said, they are hiring 16 part-time readers to review applications and five additional full-time admissions counselors, at an expected added cost of $1.5 million to $2 million next year.

Let's assume the part-time readers will work half time. Meaning I'll consider them the same as 8 full-time workers. Add to that the five new admissions counselors, and that comes to 13 new hires. Divide the number of new hires by the conservative estimate of the cost ($1.5 million) and it comes out to over $115,000 per full-time hire. If using the higher estimate it comes out to almost $154,000 per full-time hire.

"U-Michigan Reveals New Policy