In 1997 sticker prices for college tuition were 'fake' -- and still are
What you actually were charged for tuition at private colleges depended on family income, which meant most students paid half of the sticker price. As the Post-Gazette reports, it's still true.
A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article on June 16 about Western Pa. colleges bracing for steep declines in enrollment says the drop is in part tied to the ‘baby dearth’ during the Great Recession of 2008.
It’s also due to the skyrocketing tuition costs (that most students never pay unless their parents are surgeons or oil sheiks).
Acknowledging affordability wariness, Washington & Jefferson reduced its tuition sticker price by 44% to better reflect its costs. At private colleges like W&J, sticker prices often don’t give an accurate picture of how much students will actually pay for their education since these prices don’t factor in scholarships.
“We see in many institutions really high sticker prices on tuition, but there are extremely high scholarships and discounts that just stack on top of it,” said Tracey Sheetz, W&J’s vice president of enrollment. “When students see that extremely high sticker price, they don't look any further because they might not realize that's what institutions do.”
Twenty-seven years ago I alerted parents not to be scared off by the high tuition costs publicized by Pittsburgh-area private colleges. What is true now about ‘discounted’ sticker prices was true then.
