A timely quide for parents hoping to reduce the cost of their child’s college education.
"Those who are new to the process might not be aware they do not have to pay the base sticker price, which for private nonprofit colleges averaged $33,480 this year, according to the College Board.
To attract top candidates, many colleges are willing to shave money off tuition, even beyond what they have already offered in financial aid, on a case-by-case basis. “They call it merit aid to deflect from the fact that it is discretionary,” Mr. Peck said."
"For the 2015-16 academic year, about 88 percent of first-time full-time private college freshmen and 77 percent of all private school undergraduates were awarded half the cost of tuition and fees, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
Negotiating for tuition is like buying a car, except that when buying a car you at least know you are getting something useful when the negotiations are completed. With college you don’t know if you are getting any tangible for at least four years or maybe more.
We have a lawyer friend who negotiated for both of his kids’ colleges. I had never heard of doing this before that. He was successful since he’s a pretty pushy guy. ;))
I know a pushy parent who convinced a college to give the kid an “academic” scholarship. It was largely based on thinking the kid was under appreciated and partly reluctance to be full pay even when they could well afford it.
I thought it was inappropriate but they got what they wanted.
Didn’t work at the LACs S #1 was accepted to. When he received his financial aid package (with merit and grant money factored in), the letters specifically stated there was no room for negotiation. The exact wording was actually close to ‘this is as good as we can do. Don’t ask.’
I did politely mention that S really was hoping to go to his preferred U but competing U made a slightly bigger offer of merit aid by $XXXX amount. Preferred U said they do NOT match, but magically matched the larger merit offer. It was for all 4 years, so we were pleased. They also increased his merit while he was attending the U, so that was also nice.