<p>Mini:</p>
<p>Yep. I agree. It is poor marketing for a college to post a sticker price below the going elite college rate. Wealthy customers will pay if the college's prestige and stats are attractive. The sure-fire way to raise the stats is merit-aid discounting. It's not really any different than the weekly "Toyota Sellathon" marketing.</p>
<p>Sadly, Xiggi may have hit on the real reason for the "mush" speech.</p>
<p>The article states, ".. His top goal was to boost Richmond's national profile.."</p>
<p>His speech generated articles in the national press (and discussion on global internet forums!) which advanced his top goal.</p>
<p>
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One of the best long-term strategies to attract students from outside one's region is to raise tuition, and then use the new fuel for other purposes, including offering merit aid
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</p>
<p>But this doesn't appear to be what Richmond has in mind. They are increasing the tuition and increasing the need-based aid, not the merit aid (well, there is an increase in the amount of Richmond Scholars, but they have been quite clear that the bulk of the money will go need-based aid). One striking thing about Richmond's scholarship webpage is that there is not much discussion of partial merit scholarships (some Bonner, some NMF) -- basically it says there are 50 full-freight scholarships, a handful of relatively minor (less than $4000/year) awards, and that's it -- unless I'm reading it wrong. Everything else appears to be need-based. </p>
<p>I'm not disputing your general premise, but it just doesn't seem to fit with what Richmond is doing with the money.</p>
<p>And, outside of Hollywood, I've never agreed with the "any news is better than no news" philosophy. Bad press is bad press, and even a cursory look at the Richmond-area newspapers and the student publications reveals a lot of bad press.</p>
<p>But you can see the positioning. Two accepted candidates at $30k brings in $60k. Two accepted candidates at $40k brings in $80k. But one of them can only afford $30k. So $70k is brought in without any damage to the reputation (actually, probably enhances it" the aid-receiving student's family believes they got a good deal; the $40k family believes they've bought an Audi rather than a Nissan.)</p>
<p>Two accepted candidates at $40k who can pay it brings in $80k, freeing up $20k to "buy" a financially poorer applicant they really want. They can call it "need-based" aid if they like - doesn't matter to the applicant what they call it, provided his family can now afford the education. In addition, as you note, more "Richmond Scholars". So they increase both need-based and merit aid at the same time, enhance the panache of the product, and bring in more income. It's a win all-around -- if they can pull it off.</p>
<p>It's not a win to the people who now pay 40 instead of 30. It's not a win for those spohs, juniors and seniors that thought the tuition in the future was going to be a lot smaller than it is turning out to be.</p>
<p>They should have grandfathered all students already at the school with lower rates.</p>
<p>If they did grandfather exisiting students, nevermind.:)</p>
<p>dstark, they did, mostly. Tuition for those students went up, but more in line with the types of increases you would see at most colleges. </p>
<p>I'm still interested to see how this evolves. I think Richmond is making a mistake. I don't believe that this is how they will achieve their goal of being perceived as an Ivy League School or Duke or Wake or Davidson.</p>
<p>I concur with Iderochi....the Prez's 15 minutes of fame is not the kind you want or need. A better model is the one practiced by USC...just put out the word that every NMF receives a huge tuition discount. Over time, test scores rise, and it's done with little marketing/advertising dollars. Further, target need-based aid to local Richmond Pell Grantees, to cover the elitism charge.</p>
<p>The NMF model has also been used very effectively by Prez Doti at Chapman U in SoCal -- first time in PR's 'Best of..' list.</p>
<p>
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I don't believe that this is how they will achieve their goal of being perceived as an Ivy League School or Duke or Wake or Davidson.
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</p>
<p>Why? Merit aid discounting has worked very well for Duke, Wake, Davidson, Emory, UWash-StL, and many other schools in attracting high-stat kids from the lucrative northeastern market.</p>
<p>I don't see why it wouldn't work for Richmond. It's in a convenient location, within a day's drive of the big northeast markets and is already emerging on the radar screens among wealthy customers in those markets. If they can use merit aid discounting (open or hidden) to further increase their median SATs, demand will increase.</p>
<p>Interesteddad, I think you are absolutely correct.Many schools use merit aid to beef up their average SATs, which in turn attracts better students because they think that the school becomes that much harder. It feeds on itself. If Richmond does exactly that, they should be able to raise average GPAs and SAT scores. Certainly ,an extra $10,000 per student in tuition can accomplish a lot of aid. I just feel sorry for the poor ....or...poorer folks who pay the full freight.</p>
<p>For those interested last year (well I was for a while, DD didn't like the small school environment of U of R), it amounted to a bait and switch.
If you are thinking comprehensive fees might be $32K and they are raised to over $40 can't blame anyone for putting the raise the tuition for class of '09 letter that prospectives received in the round file...</p>
<p>Well, yeah. It's for that reason that I think the 8% drop can't be seen as a trend yet. I would guess that a number of potential applicants had your exact reaction.</p>
<p>Wow, UR raised tuition by 1/3 in a single year? Sounds like before they did that they were in a position to potentially be another Rice. Too bad. There's a need for more schools like that.</p>
<p>I had an opportunity to observe a group of UR students in a performance setting at another of Virginia's universities. Sadly, I found their behavior rude and inconsiderate. Others commented on the same thing. They would talk loudly while others were singing, and actually left as a group during a different group's performance. I don't care what tuition your parents can afford, there is no excuse for boorishness. The world will judge you by your character and not your pocketbook. Okay, my rant over.</p>