<p>I'm seeing a lot of threads about "merit scholarships" recently, and that reminds me that a Harvard-educated economist showed me an ASTOUNDING link a while age with detailed descriptions of how one consultant advises colleges to use targeted scholarships to INCREASE revenue. </p>
<p>The whole site on which this link is found is a treasure-trove of information about how colleges market themselves, how colleges identify likely customers, and how a "merit aid" offer can be something other than a discount if the college raised its list price before starting its new merit scholarship program. Check the full out-of-pocket cost of the college, and the most realistic assessments you can find of the college's value, e.g., </p>
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what i found really interesting at the maguire link -- link to their list of clients that's some list!
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Yeah, but they're a marketing company so you have to take everything you read from them with a few grains of salt ;) </p>
<p>Just because a college is listed as a "client" does that mean they've implemented the whole package? Do they even define "client" on their site? For all we know, if someone attended a sales seminar and listed their institutional affiliation they're now a "client", or maybe a "client" is someone who has purchased any service from them. For example Amherst is listed as a "client" but in the "success story" pulldown it looks like all they did was hold focus groups in 2 cities to see how effective their alumni web page was in communicating with alums.</p>
<p>That's a good point in that it's not at all clear how many colleges adopt the consultant firm's recommendations completely. I know from a Google search that MIT has an officer whose duties include "enrollment management," so at least some colleges do this in-house on an ongoing basis. What was eye-catching to me about the site, at first, was the notion of the "merit scholarship" as a revenue MAXIMIZING tool.</p>
<p>Like they say, "It takes money to make money." Better students = higher rankings/more selectivity/more outside support and funding=higher tuition. Not all students will be merit scholars therefore more money comes in from those who pay full price...</p>
<p>I do think one thing is telling: when your kid receives a financial aid offer from the college's "office of enrollment management".... that's a pretty good signal about what they are thinking. That is what my daughter got with a very generous $10K merit scholarship offer from Northeastern -- and the "word" from other parents on line is that Northeastern is very willing to negotiate merit awards. I mean... I am glad that I understood that a letter coming from the "enrollment management" department might as well have been labeled as coming from the "let's make a deal" department.</p>
<p>We didn't negotiate, however, since my daughter got into other colleges -- and I don't mean to suggest that Northeastern would have given whatever we asked... but the point is, "enrollment management" means that their bottom line was knowing how much money it would take to get each student to come. I'm sure there was also an upper boundary as to how much they thought my daughter was worth spending, on their end.</p>
<p>Princeton's "enrollment management" effort to provide lots of small "need-based" grants to lots of applicants in the $110k-$160k income range was absolutely brilliant. Not only did it help stem a small flow out to the Vanderbilts of the world (after all, now they all "received a scholarship to Princeton!), but what they pay out in the grants is more than made up for in tuition increases.</p>
<p>Enrollment management is NOT all about "merit aid" (except in the sense that I use it, where ALL aid is merit aid.)</p>
<p>There are many enrollment management firms out there. Maguire is not unique, nor is it the largest. Even the College Board does some "enrollment management consulting." Every college also has someone in charge of enrollment management planning, whether they have that title or not. Do a google search for "enrollment management consulting" and see what turns up. These days, it is quite possible to find the enrollment management plans for hundreds of colleges online if one knows how to look for them.</p>
<p>I have also written extensively on the subject on my blog, which, unfortunately, I am not able to link to here. However, if anyone is interested, PM me and I'll give you the link.</p>
<p>My interest in this issue has been piqued ever since a thread (perhaps the thread referenced above that was opened by Carolyn some months ago) here included a post in which it was mentioned that some PIDDLY discount on list price for an overpriced school can nonetheless seem appealing if it is labeled a "presidential merit scholarship" or something like that.</p>
<p>Princeton offers HUGE discounts off the list price ("loan-free full tuition need-based aid") for some students, and I think in all cases offers an educational experience that is worthwhile. Its application statistics suggest that a lot of people have reached the same conclusion about the desirability of its program as against those of other colleges. </p>
<p>It happens that Princeton was mentioned recently in a meeting I attended for students in my son's math program and their families. Princeton was described as a college with an undergraduate math program that is like "graduate school" by the third year of the program--it was a math professor whose own son went to MIT who spoke this description. That means Princeton isn't for everybody: most college-bound young people--even most aspiring math majors--aren't prepared for such an undergraduate program. But Princeton does seem, by repeated testimony I have encountered in various online fora, to make its program affordable for a broad range of young people who are academically ready for it.</p>
<p>No question it's a fine school, with wonderful programs. And I'm glad that more folks are able to take advantage of it. But, in terms of actual numbers, the main beneficiaries of the loan-free program have been those just below full-freight territory - which is not surprising, since that's who they targeted. Enrollment management suggests that these are the folks most needed to meet the bottom line, and, without calling it "merit aid", they found a way to offer it. That's why, when the percentage of those receiving "need-based aid" increased by 11% over a four-year period, more than half that percentage came from folks in the top quintile of the population. </p>
<p>Sure can't blame 'em for that. They don't have to admit anyone who isn't "academically" ready for it; it is just advantageous to admit folks who can "almost" pay for it.</p>
<p>tokenadult,
What I've seen is that Presidential Scholarship is often an incoming-GPA-maximizing tool. I certainly can't make this blanket statement about all colleges with that award title, not having researched them all, but I've noticed that Pres. scholarships are often available to high-producing acceptees at colleges with low-producing student bodies. It's a way to attract an excellent student when the college has not much to recommend for itself <em>except</em> such an aid offer. Very often such a student qualifies even for an excellent flagship public, for which the student does not qualify for FA because family income is middle-middle without demonstrated need. In such cases a private in the same convenient state (often even near home) is a financial bargain for the student even if the intellectual quality is lacking.</p>
<p>Mini, I would analyze that ever so slightly differently and say that when Princeton announced that the equity in one's principal residence doesn't count as an asset to Princeton (which does me no good, because I rent), then Princeton was mostly aiming at the high-income "middle class" people who usually complain they are both too rich and too poor to send their kids to college. But the no-loan policy flows right to the bottom line of families at all income levels who get any aid at all, and my observation of CC threads is that that has helped lots of lower-income applicants afford Princeton. I'd like to see more of that kind of thinking about tuition discounting.</p>
<p>Princeton is on of the world's great universities. But on making itself available to those of limited means, it is way behind. Compared to MIT, with comparably lofty admissions standards, Princeton has a far smaller percent of the class eligible for Pell grants.</p>