Whitman might give you a bigger discount than what it promises upfront — once it does a more thorough review of your full application file — but not a smaller one. The College of Wooster, in Ohio, also offers a personalized estimate and a similar guarantee, as long as people submit accurate information.
To Whitman, the lack of upfront clarity on pricing was a basic market inefficiency that it could fix. “Some colleges may benefit from a lack of financial transparency,” Mr. Miller, the Whitman interim vice president, said.
Indeed, far too many schools keep things opaque, and one has actually doubled down on withholding useful information.
In a column about early decision applicants in January, I cited Northeastern as an example of a school that made it difficult for many students to figure out what the school might ask them to pay when making an offer of admission that is theoretically (but not really) binding.
Late last year, Northeastern’s site offered confusing language: “Students who are in the top 10-15% of our applicant pool are considered for competitive merit awards.”
I asked the school about this unhelpful word salad, and eventually, Northeastern changed it. But it made an error — and then removed the figure altogether. Here’s the right one, by the way: In the 2020-21 entering class, 59 percent of people who had no financial need got merit aid anyhow.
Why not just say that, then? “The university is placing much more emphasis on need-based aid these days,” Michael Armini, a university spokesman, said in an email. “That is what I want the focus of our messaging to be.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/18/your-money/financial-aid-northeastern-muhlenberg-whitman.html
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