Dive Brief:
- Rosemont College has experienced a significant boost in applications and enrollment, after cutting tuition by more than $14,000 and housing and fees by more than $2,000 for the fall semester.
- Applications increased by more than 64%, with total enrollment increasing by more than 20% at the small Catholic college. The number of middle-income first year student admissions also increased by more than 60%.
- The "Our Tuition Promise" program reduces the discount rate and the amount of institutional aid to present a "true sticker price" that is more attractive to prospective students.
Dive Insight:
The Rosemont tuition adjustment is the latest in a growing movement of institutions reducing tuition through the "addition by subtraction" method. Last month, LaSalle University launched a similar program aimed at aiding affordability for current and future students.
This kind of initiative accomplishes several things. First, it allows colleges a chance to gain national attention from a diverse student pool that is actively looking for cost-saving opportunities in higher education. Second, it adds revenue from the addition of more students if carefully balanced with strategic cuts in other non-essential spending areas. But perhaps most importantly, it fulfills a key metric of demonstrating to the federal government an effort to save costs and to provide opportunity to low-income students — two areas which will be key in the future disbursement considerations for federal student aid.