The study is limited in the sense that it is not able to look at several important variables such as institutional recruitment activities, yield rate, total institutional revenue, or value of physical plant, each of which might also influence tuition discounting. Nevertheless, it provides some insights into this important topic. Using multivariate analysis, the author found the following institutional characteristics were associated with increased tuition discounting. Many of the relationships are intuitive, but some are insightful. Colleges with higher levels of tuition are more likely to have higher levels of discount.
More selective institutions provide lower tuition discounts.
Interestingly, schools with higher levels of endowment also provide higher amounts of tuition discounts. We might have anticipated that higher levels of endowment would enable schools to fund financial aid thus reducing the amount of discount. Also, some regions are more likely to provide higher levels of discounts than others. Private colleges in the central part of the United States were most likely to provide higher amounts of tuition discounts. The author speculates that competition for students is more intense in this region.