Quote:
Originally posted by Rudey
You got financial aid. Stanford is not free.
-Rudey
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Actually, XOMichelle is right. For the first decade or so after the university's inception, tuition was $0. The board of directors only voted to have a tuition fee once they saw that the students were better off financially than their professors (I believe this was in the 1920's or 1930's) So while today Stanford does have tuition and a financial aid system, it was in fact free to attend for a period of time.
I should add that it was Jane and Leland's desire that Stanford students never pay for college, but times changed and so did the board's impression of the situation. Later tuition increases reflected increases in costs for the university and the inability of the university endowment to keep up with those demands (its a possibility that tuition wouldn't increase nearly so much if alumni were exceedingly generous).