I’m curious about the types of atypical or innovative incentives folks have seen from colleges that are trying to generate interest in their schools in what is an increasingly competitive market (between the declining demographics of HS grads, and waning interest of some in attending college among other factors). I know that free fly in programs has been a strategy used by some schools for decades along with application fee waivers. Eliminating supplemental essays is another some schools seem to be employing to generate apps, if not genuine interest.
I’m primarily thinking about things that are designed to get students interested in the school so that they consider even applying, as opposed to incentives for things like Early Decision (for example, I know some schools offer tuition discounts, early housing selection, or even other incentives like a free bike for all ED enrollees).
What got me thinking about this topic is Agnes Scott College’s $2000 per year scholarship for students applying for 2026 who visit campus. A campus visit will net a student who applies and enrolls $8,000 off of tuition over four years. Given that a substantial majority of the school’s students are from Georgia, I imagine there could be at least two reasons for this incentive: 1) to get more students from Georgia and locally to come for a campus visit because they believe more campus visits will get more folks to apply once they see what the school has to offer and what the campus is like (and I will say as someone who has visited, their info session and campus tour was excellent, probably the best of all the schools we visited); 2) to get more out of state students to invest in visiting because the scholarship amount would more than offset the cost of the trip if those students ultimately decide to attend.
I think this is a good strategy for a school trying to drive up interest.
Have you seen other innovative incentives aimed at getting more students interested in applying to schools?