Forecasting the Future During the last two years, a few institutions have experimented with significant price reductions as an alternative to increasing their discount rate. This approach to pricing does not seem to be taking hold. The trend to more deeply discount tuition is continuing. Fewer and fewer students at independent colleges and universities are paying the published tuition price, and more institutions are offering aid based on criteria other than need. The focus has now changed from should we discount to how can we do it most effectively.
Tuition discounting is on the landscape for many years to come.
Many institutions are beginning to discount their prices for certain categories of students and to make these discounts public. What appeared to be an experiment among a few institutions last year seems to be a growing trend. More institutions are discounting to residents of certain areas, to members of certain honor societies, and to children of alumni. These institutions are instituting these programs with a great deal of fanfare, publicity, and advertising. All are attempts to lower the price of the institution in a public way by selectively discounting tuition.