Before I make several points, I want to be very clear that I believe that the cost of a veterinary education at ALL schools is out of control and beyond affordable.
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As an island student, I feel very targeted by legislation like this. I know it is intended to help, but realistically, I think it does very little to actually benefit students and may actually make things more expensive and worse. These programs did just fine prior to receiving federal funding. People applied, happily took out private loans, and became veterinarians. The addition of federal funding certainly made the programs more attractive to some, but that just means the applicant pool increased. These schools aren't going to change their ways, and at least at SGU, veterinary medicine is not a money maker for them. My understanding is that vet students actually end up costing the school more than their actually worth, but the programs have been around for awhile and have become popular, so they've come up with ways to off-set the costs (go look at the med school tuition, and you'll understand!! my just-started-3rd-year med friend already owes $250k in just med school loans at this point, and there are 600-800 people in her class).
It also frustrates me that they are targeting the island schools so heavily, when there are several programs out there that are charging as much or even more in tuition. Part of the expense of an island school (at SGU) isnt the actual tuition, its the cost of living (which can be skimped on). If you look at the VIN foundations site, you'll notice that Ross does indeed take the cake for total COA, but actually comes in cheaper (tuition alone) than 7 other US schools. thats ridiculous! SGU comes in at 15 of 33 for OOS tuition, and 26/33 for OOS including COL. There is no doubt that when it comes to going in-state, it will be cheaper to go in-state in most cases (unless you go to UPenn, LMU, or Western). For-profit status shouldn't be what gets you highlighted. Your outrageous costs should be what gets you ousted, because there are several schools that are significantly contributing to high debt burdens right along side the island schools.
Basically, I don't think anything is going to change cost-wise at these schools. If necessary, I think they will go back to private loans only, and that really only hurts the students (because they will still come). This really does nothing to help students at not-for-profit schools that are charging outrageous amounts of tuition (more than the island schools even). They will continue to get away with killing students as they hide behind a title. None of this prevents schools from opening in new locations, increasing their tuition, and adding on more seats.
http://vinfoundation.org/apputil/project/defaultadv1.aspx?id=5327182&said=-1
