Education: The Cut-Rate Schmidts

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Big families are fine—until a hard-pressed father has to pay two or three college tuitions at once. Last week the jolt was eased by the University of Portland (Ore.), a Roman Catholic institution (enrollment: 1,550) which announced an unusual sliding-scale plan for big families. Terms: full $660 tuition for a family's first scholar, $440 for a second in attendance at the same time, $220 for a third—nothing for all thereafter.

To Salem Real Estate Man Harold Schmidt—father of eleven—it was a bonanza. His son Denny, 21, is a Portland senior; Son Keith, 22, and Daughters Victoria Anne, 20, and Margarite May, 18, are entering freshmen. The new plan not only halves their total tuition to $1,320; the four are also paying it themselves by working at outside jobs and starting their own boardinghouse for six Portland coeds.