With UW-Madison imposing an 18 percent tuition increase and nationwide public schools suffering a 14 percent tuition hike in the past year, officials voiced concerns of fewer perspective UW-Madison students.
Kent Barrett, spokesperson for UW-Madison communications, noted that the national and state economies have affects on UW-Madison and other public schools.
\The national economy is part of the reason why budget in Wisconsin was the way it was they are all interrelated,"" Barrett said.
With UW-Madison's tuition increase and the decreased number of freshmen applicants for the 2003-04 school year, some have begun to wonder if there is a correlation.
According to Eric Maczka, an employee at the Prospective Student Tour Office, between 2002-'03 there was a 7.8 percent increase of students touring campus, but the Office of Admissions saw applicants decrease by 4.3 percent.
Out-of-state students make up the majority of the decrease in applicants whose tuition has also increased in the past few years, according to statistics from the Office of Admissions.
Keith White, associate director of UW-Madison Admissions, said revenue will decrease if the number of out-of-state students continues to fall.
""We have reached the point where we have to be very careful on how much higher we go [raising out-of-state tuition] or that affect could certainly come to pass ... We want large numbers of out-of-state students because they are paying larger amounts of tuition that benefit the university,"" White said.
However, UW-Madison is still the second most affordable school in the Big Ten for in-state students, according to UW-Madison's Web site, and White said the university is still affordable for out-of-state students.
""Our tuition, in comparison to other state universities, is still relatively low even for out-of-state students considering Madison, another state school or even a private university. We are still very comparable,"" White noted.
Many university officials and students want tuition rates to plateau. UW-Madison freshman Trevor Jones said he is willing to pay more for a prestigious Big Ten school. ""The raise in tuition wasn't a large factor because I was going to be attending a quality university,"" Jones said.
