Anytime you hear about discount rates increasing you need to know that this is a good thing from a student perspective. Discounting has been the practice adopted by colleges and universities across the nation as a way to make education more affordable for the students that they want to attend their institution. However, as you go through the college search process, no one is probably going to bring up the “D” word. They have much more attractive names like scholarships, awards, and prizes that they utilize in lieu of the discounting term. Most families don’t object because they would much rather tell their friends and family about all the scholarships their student receives verses sharing what their discount is (that would just be boring)…

Nicholas Hillman is a professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Utah. He recently performed a study and released results that indicate public colleges and universities are providing more discount (financial aid) to students as compared to a study performed back in 2002.  He gathered information from 174 public colleges and universities and found that they had an average discount rate of 12.3%. As a person that works in the private higher education sector, I can tell you that 12.3% is nothing compared to the discount provided by the private colleges and universities. However, it is a lot for public schools because they don’t typically carry the same tuition rates as their private counterparts.

Hillman goes on to cite that financial aid budgets (discounting) grew, on average, by at least 47% between 2002 – 2008 even though scholarship support from endowments remained fairly level. From a college administrator perspective, this is definitely not good news if you are spending more money and getting less net revenue to get your students in the door. As for the college student attending these schools, I think it goes to show that now is definitely the time to be getting your education. The sticker price of many colleges may be at an all time high but with discounting (financial aid spending) reaching new heights in the public college sector, the net expense that you will have out-of-pocket is sure to be less.