Public and private colleges are focusing on one of those wish-list items in particular: cost. Responding to consumer weariness of tuition price increases, some are underway with a host of “free college” efforts to reduce the sticker price through fundraising or major donor gifts.
On Sunday, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he planned to give $1.8 billion to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, to make it “forever need-blind.” The funds — which are the largest private donation in higher education history — will allow the Baltimore university to increase grants to low-income students and remove loans from financial aid packages.
