<p>“If someone offers to sell you a life-changing product ranging in price anywhere from $10,000 to $250,000 – maybe more – chances are that most of you will at least attempt to negotiate that price down; only suckers pay sticker price. And yet, when it comes to a college education, it’s unheard of to call up competing institutes of higher learning to see if you can knock a few bucks off the MSRP.” …</p>
<p>Hermes Birkin is never on sale, and there is a long wait list for it, so if you want one then you pay list and consider yourself lucky to get one. On the other hand, if you want a Coach bag, they do go on sale sometimes. If you are fine with a store brand bag, then there are 20%-50% coupons all the time.</p>
<p>There is a department store near us, where “sale” is going on all the time. Of course, the “sale” price is at, or higher, what the normal price should be. I have a feeling that many colleges engage in the same “marketing” or whatever this strategy might be called. First, they raise their price to the sky, then offer you a ‘grant’ or a ‘scholarship’. They are even worse than department store, because at the store, I do not have to tell the cashier my salary, or show the content of my wallet, to get a discount.</p>
<p>“And yet, when it comes to a college education, it’s unheard of to call up competing institutes of higher learning to see if you can knock a few bucks off the MSRP.”
Not true. After acceptances, students can contact FA offices to appeal their FA offers. Often colleges will match higher FA offers from other colleges, especially those that are considered "peer’s . But your likely hood of successfully upping your award depends on how much they really want you, among other factors…</p>
<p>There is some negotiations, it’s just done through scholarships. I remember when my football-player son (a good but not great player) was choosing schools, scholarship offers were clearly negotiated. The coach from school A would say “tell us what school B is offering…we can do better.” I think the same thing happens with merit aid scholarships in some situations. One small school, for example, routinely offered scholarships to graduates of my son’s Catholic high school, effectively lowering the tuition by about $3,000 a year.</p>
<p>Why not, tell them you want it for free, they can tell you where is the exit. But why not if you have lots of time?<br>
The real negotiation is to get very high stats and to apply to schools that definitely will cover most if not all cost. Here is no wasting of time, very straight forward strategy. Do not even need to talk to them, it will happen automatically. Many use this approach with great outcome. So why not use what definitely is working currently as we speak? I know one young man who will be attending JHU for free. We did not pay UG tuition for my D. either. These kids could have chosent the most expensive alternatives, but instead they decided to use their great negotiating approach (high stats/right school), which did not even involve talking to anybody.</p>
<p>Well, first lets develop a “College and University Blue Book of Price and Value”, compiled by some completely unbiased company, so we all know what we’re dealing with. Maybe Conumers Union could take this on. And then all the parents could make an appointment with the Bursar’s office to negotiate tuition, room and board costs. At the end, the salesman, er, financial officer, would excuse himself to talk to his manager to get it OKed. While we were discussing price the manager would be running a credit check. </p>
<p>Would we all get to do this every year, or would it be a one time shot?</p>
<p>College is different than most things that one might haggle on for many reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It’s fundamentally a service, and an ongoing service, not a product. Even if you’re just going “for the degree” the degree itself isn’t worth anything, it’s the image that the college or university maintains that gives the degree worth. You can get a sheet of paper, even fancy paper, pretty cheap. That’s not what you’re paying for.</p></li>
<li><p>My money is greener than yours. Universities have a preference over students, as such, person A paying 10K might be preferable to person B paying 20K. </p></li>
<li><p>At top universities, there is a “shortage” of spots. At current prices, more people want to go to top universities than supply spots. </p></li>
<li><p>Going to college is gambling. For the same reason you don’t try to haggle the odds on a roulette table (perhaps a closer analogy is payouts on stud poker, but you get the idea), you don’t haggle the price of college education. You are going with the hope of a better life, knowing that you’re taking a risk. There’s a thousand varieties so you can pick the one that most matches what you want, and if you don’t want to gamble you don’t.</p></li>
<li><p>Supply of seats isn’t fixed. It’s more of a trade-off curve, between service quality and seats supplied. Losing one student gives gains in customer satisfaction.</p></li>
<li><p>Information is bad and standardization is low-non-existent. When I go to a school I don’t know what professors are going to end up teaching my classes, what companies will recruit from there, who my classmates will be, anything about the service I’m receiving. I am just hoping that the school will do it’s best to make me happy.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I always considered scholarships and other institutional aid the “negotiation” on tuition. Apply at several places and look for the best deal, kind of like you do when shopping for a car, contact several dealerships and see who is going to give you the best deal after pre-screening for type, options, etc.</p>
<p>The problem with the handbag analogy is that it’s hard to imagine a store where SOME people got charged a thousand dollars for the Hermes, SOME people were given one for free and SOME people got charged five hundred dollars with the option of financing the rest. In other words, it’s entirely possible for some individuals to get charged more for the store brand than others get charged for the Hermes, and for some people in some instances to find out that they can’t actually afford the Coach but that they can afford the Hermes.<br>
Not the same scenario. Not the same at all. The problem with “you get what you pay for” is that it doesn’t work if everyone is being charged a different price. Hence, the wish to negotiate.</p>
<p>You want to belly up to the bar, you pay their cost for a drink. You want a place where your’s costs less? What do you offer, in trade? What’s your glitz or angle? Why should they bow to you? Go for merit money or special funding for some status, talent or whatever. Play their sport well enough to be wanted. Don’t pick the high priced schools that only give need to the penny after reviewing your financial picture. Vote with your feet: go to cc or one of the bargain schools.</p>
<p>College isn’t life changing for all. Plenty of kids sleepwalk through it, then complain. For all the kids on cc who ask what a school’s policies are, when are deadlines, do they require this or that-- I wouldn’t begin to suggest they are in a position to negotiate. (Or even ready for college.)</p>
<p>"The problem with the handbag analogy is that it’s hard to imagine a store where SOME people got charged a thousand dollars for the Hermes, SOME people were given one for free and SOME people got charged five hundred dollars with the option of financing the rest. In other words, it’s entirely possible for some individuals to get charged more for the store brand than others get charged for the Hermes, and for some people in some instances to find out that they can’t actually afford the Coach but that they can afford the Hermes. "
-yes, it is very possible. There are employee discounts, various coupon, credit card checks at the end of the year. The same exact thing, except, Merit awards are normally awarded to people who worked exceptionally hard. So, while you can buy something cheaper just because…, you have to work very hard to get cheaper UG. That is if we forget, that some specificallychoosing only In-state, others have URM status and third qualify “need” based. While URM status and need based is not really controlled by applicant, there is a great level of control over your HS grades, test scores and applying IS vs OOS. Again, there are some schools that are simply known for great packages to top kids, these include some private schools (one example is Case, you can find more on thread devoted to Merit awards). I see that there are many ways you can negotiate your college tuition…without any type of talking…I believe that it is the fairest system as it discounts some people’s superior talking skills (sales). However, this skill is very valuable in a future looking for a job. that is where you really need ability to sell youself and set of your skills. College - I do not think so…</p>
<p>Lots of people are doing that now. If your student is an athlete they have the choice of picking the school that gives opportunity for the most playing time, best location, best academics, or best price tag. It’s up to them to decide what the priorities are. The same with high achieving kids. They can go for the lottery schools, or they can step it down in academics and certainly find a school that will offer them a full ride. The more in demand you are due to academics or talent and the more flexible you are as to college wish-list expectations, the more choices you will have financially to choose from.</p>
<p>So I looked at it differently. The colleges were competing for the right to rent my kids. In exchange, I was willing to pay something toward their upkeep.</p>
<p>In both cases, that’s exactly how it worked out.</p>
<p>Using a quick search of the University of Maryland, College Park, out of 6600 (approx.) incoming freshmen, there are 150 Banneker Key Scholars with scholarships ranging from partial to full tuition. There are another small group of honors students given partial tuition scholarships. There were a total of 763 varsity athletes in 2010, not all of whom were given scholarships. I’m not sure how many of those athletes were freshmen, but lets say it was 140, not all of whom are scholarship athletes.</p>
<p>So somewhere around 500 of the class of 6600 freshmen at UMD were scholarship students (only counting scholarships offered by the university, and rounding the numbers).</p>
<p>I think it is an exaggeration to say that “lots of people are doing that now”. The majority of students are NOT the top academic or athletic recruits at any college or university.</p>
<p>Its just like everything else in life. The schools with whom you’d most like to negotiate are the ones who don’t have any need, or desire, to negotiate.</p>
<p>Depending on your definition of “a lot”, a lot do. “On average, nearly 13 percent of undergraduate students who demonstrated no financial need received merit awards during the 2010-2011 academic year”</p>
<p>Add in those who did demonstrate financial need and also got merit. </p>