<p>Tulane was one of the foremost though hardly the only player in that tuition discounting strategy. Don't know if they still will be post-katrina. But with more and more schools playing it aggressively I wonder if it will continue to be effective.</p>
<p>The University of Richmond on the other hand always had relatively low tuition but decided to jack it precipitously last year. The reasoning seemed to be that the lower tuition affected peoples perceptions of the quality of the school (and they needed more money). Whatever the publicly stated reason my guess is they will be getting heavily into the tuition discounting game. But I have a suspicion it is a strategy that has run its course and will be incresingly less effective.</p>
<p>Once everybody starts doing it (and virtually everybody has, though some still hypocritically insist they only give need based aid) they run into the same problem the car dealers do. Have you ever bought a new car and not thought you got screwed on the price? I know I haven't and I think most people feel the same as me. The result is I only buy from no-haggle pricing dealers. I actually tried haggling but couldn't beat the no-haggle price anywhere and I certainly did not need the aggravation.</p>
<p>If I were a school outside the top twenty and wanted to move up the ladder I'd cut my price in today's market, give a few full ride scholarships to attract some real cream into an honors pool and test in the rest after first semester. I think outside the top twenty schools published tuition has gotten so high that there really is price resistance. These schools don't know how many potentially really well qualified students they are scaring off with the sticker price who maybe could pay the real price.</p>