When she graduated from Cass Tech, Detroit native Lauren Patterson was determined to pay whatever was necessary to become the first woman in her family to earn a college degree.
To her surprise, tuition and fees to Wayne State University would not be among those costs.
Instead, Patterson, a sophomore, attends WSU as one of hundreds of students who were accepted into the university’s groundbreaking Heart of Detroit Tuition Pledge program, which allows eligible students to enjoy zero out-of-pocket expenses for tuition and fees.
“Most of my aunties and my mom went to college, but they didn’t get the chance to complete it,” Patterson said. “When I graduated from high school, I said I was going to Wayne State, and I was going to do what was necessary, even if it meant taking out loans, to get an education. But the Heart of Detroit program offset the tuition, and it has made going to school so much easier. I’ve lived in Detroit all my life, and this is a nice incentive to stay home.”
Announced in 2019 and launched in fall 2020, the Heart of Detroit Tuition Pledge is open to current Detroit high school students and to Detroit residents earning a high school diploma. The pledge covers tuition and standard fees for up to four years of full-time study.
Now in its fifth year, Heart of Detroit has proven to be equal parts pathway to higher education for city students and a bridge over many financial hurdles that have traditionally deterred countless Detroiters from attending or finishing college.
“The Heart of Detroit Tuition Pledge is a showcase of our significant commitment to Detroit and its residents,” said Charles Cotton III, vice provost for strategic enrollment management. “While we’re an institution with a global reach, it’s equally important that we don’t lose that sense of support for those in our immediate backyard, the community in which we are deeply ingrained as far as research, scholarship, internships and economic development. The tuition pledge allows us to educate those who reside in this area.”
The program underscores the power of cost-saving measures to open doors. For the 2024-25 school year, there are 1,740 participants in the Heart of Detroit program, including 565 students infall 2024. Meanwhile, 217 Heart of Detroit students have already graduated from WSU, and another 152 have applied for graduation for the winter 2025 semester. More broadly, Heart of Detroit and other programs have been successful enough that 60% of WSU’s first-year undergraduate students the last two years have attended the university tuition free.
Heart of Detroit is also instrumental to encouraging graduates to remain in the area and invest their education and skills locally.
“There have been statistics tracking higher education for quite some time that talk about the secondary benefit of an institution that produces scholars who elect to reside within a short radius or within that same state in which they received that degree,” Cotton explained. “That could include local students or talent that we bring from out of state. It’s equally important that we do our part to continue producing talent that has a higher statistical chance of staying in Detroit upon completion of a degree.
Cotton praised the university for its effort to keep tuition low for students across the board — “Wayne State has done an amazing job of mitigating cost increases,” he said — but conceded that, in today’s climate, the costs still pose a challenge for many.
However, he noted that, unlike some other investments, a degree pays for itself and — then some — in the long run: “Some of the things we invest in are depreciating assets. The collegiate education you receive is an appreciating asset, and we see that when looking into lifelong earning potential.”
The data backs this up; the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that someone with a bachelor’s stands to earn more than $1 million more in their lifetime than someone without a degree.
For students like Lauren Patterson, however, a government report isn’t necessary to grasp the value of higher education.
“A degree certifies that you can be disciplined, that you can sit down and think critically,” she said. “You get skills you wouldn’t be able to just pick up anywhere else in the real world. You get work experiences and social experiences that you wouldn’t have. I wake up every day to go to class, enrich myself and be in a setting with likeminded people. I want a degree behind my name.”
