The Price They Don't Print

The number on the college website is not the price. Almost nobody pays it.At most private colleges, the majority of first-year students pay somewhere between forty and seventy per cent of the published cost - and the institution decided how much each family would pay before it ever met them, using a pricing model refined every year against last year's results.There is a profession behind this. It is called enrollment management, it has its own conferences and consultants, and if you have never heard of it, that is not an accident.This book teaches you to read the process the way the people running it read it.WHAT'S INSIDE- How tuition discounting actually works, and why merit aid is a pricing decision rather than a prize- Twelve tricks that make an award letter look better than it is, and how to spot every one- The one calculation that makes any two offers comparable - and why the biggest scholarship is routinely the most expensive school- How to build a college list by price in October instead of discovering the problem in April- Financial aid appeals: professional judgment versus competitive appeals, who reads them, what documentation works, and word-for-word letter templates- Renewal conditions, the sophomore cliff, and the questions to ask before you deposit- How much debt is too much, and why Parent PLUS is the most dangerous line on the page- Divorce, self-employment, athletics, disability services, out-of-state premiums, waitlists and transfers- A worked comparison of three real-shaped offers from start to finish- Worksheets, a glossary, a year-by-year timeline and the questions to ask on a campus visitPERFECT FORParents staring down the process. Families in the middle - too well-off for large need-based aid, not well-off enough to write the cheque. Anyone holding an award letter with three weeks to decide.It also makes a genuinely useful gift for a family a year behind you, if you lend it to them in October rather than April.The system is not going to be fixed in time to help you. This is how you work inside it.Scroll up and click Buy Now, and stop comparing scholarships.