Notes

Negotiating your tuition cost is one of the best kept secrets colleges never tell you but the way you negotiate is just as, if not, more important.

In this multi tier lecture, we're going to discuss how anyone can bring down the cost of college.

As you already know, colleges are desperately looking for students because while so many still go to school each year and rack up debt, many join the military, work force, or community colleges and only seek associates degrees.
You've likely seen countless ads about a particular university if you've been searching. Those schools are likely far from their annual projections.

Just about every school has an annual admissions quota they seek. When they fall low, they advertise and attempt to recruit more students. When they are at quota, they advertise less. Here's the big picture. Either way, remember that so many freshman leave their first semester and first year. In other words, even if a school meets their quota, they will lose many students. Guaranteed.

There are also many students that drop out and many who take a break and never return. We all know those gap years that students take can eventually turn into gap decades and gap centuries.

Here's where negotiation can benefit you. If a college needs students and a college pays for advertising, wouldn't a college reduce a student's tuition burden by request in hopes of retaining them or getting them to enroll? Just think about it...
They need you more than you need them so absolutely. For 1, less than .01% of students do it so this is something very useful.

The best way to negotiate your tuition is early in the game but it is never too late. When picking schools you like, if you are certain on one school or a few schools, make sure you look for schools near them and apply there too. When filing out your FASFA, include those schools there as well.

Let's say you live in Miami and there are 5 schools and you are certain on one. Still apply to a few others and include them on your FAFSA.

Make sure the tuition rates for these schools are lower than the school or schools you want to attend.
Your goal is to tell your school of choice while you want to go there, there are cheaper alternatives that you are willing to take if necessary.

Now... when you receive your acceptance offer to the school you like, simply draft an email designated to their financial department stating how excited you are that you were accepted to their college and that you got accepted to others too but their prices were cheaper and more affordable.

If the other schools, the ones you didn't plan to attend, have prices more than 20% cheaper than your university, make an offer like this with them.... and before we get to that, they need to be the same type of school such as a 4 year public institution and a 4 year public institution.
This will not work if you try to combine a 2 year school and a 4 year school for obvious reasons. It also will not be ideal if your school of choice is a private school, but you are comparing the prices with public schools in attempts to get a discount. The school types need to be the same so public university should be negotiated with public university. If you want to go to a private university, then you need to find cheaper private universities and negotiate this way.
Now, let's talk negotiating.

I am extremely keen on going to this university because of xyz but I don't have financial means to go to this school. I had another school in mind called (insert) but I don't want to go there because of xyz. Their tuition rates are 33% less and I would like to know if the tuition cost for me could be reduced by 16.5% which is half of 33 and while I won't pay their tuition rates, This would allow me to attend here without a massive financial burden.

A letter like this refined to your needs is complete gold and is completely understood by colleges.


So why is this particularly powerful?
A. You established a legitimate reason for bringing down the cost of tuition. It was clear and straight to the point. Had you simply emailed them stating that you don't like the cost, it would not have been effective.
B. While you mentioned a big difference in price, you offered your school middle ground of 16.5% instead of the 33%. This makes the school more likely to work with you because you are keeping their needs in consideration as well. Being totally honest here, just don't expect a school to reduce tuition by extremely heavy margins like 60-90% unless circumstances are extremely unique because sometimes a school would accept the price of their competitors dollar for dollar but massive margins don't occur often.
C. You emailed them. Just think about it. Had you called the financial aid office and asked all of this to a person who was bogged down and busy with a notepad full, it would be crazy. Chances are the people at the phone know very little about actually changing your price. Email it so it can be forwarded to the right departments and looked at by the necessary people. It's extremely difficult for this to be successful with a phone call.


Now if your school's tuition difference is less than 15%, simply write a letter similar to above but state if you could receive a tuition offer for the same price as the school but express your willingness to negotiate it down if that is too high for the school if they decline. That makes the university highly likely to reduce cost especially if you mention your willingness to negotiate it if its too high.

One thing to do is attach the cost statement detailing the cost from the university you did not want to go to, the one with the cheaper price. This adds legitimacy and builds trust between you and your school.

If you are already in school, you can use the text above but mention you are considering changing schools because of the increased price. That normally does the trick.

What this essentially does summed up in a nutshell is it tells schools that you want to attend there but there are other universities with more promising prices and since the price of tuition keeps rising with no end in sight, you may have to leave to another school if the price is not brought down a little.


Now before we get to our final point, can this be done yearly instead of each semester? Absolutely! In fact, many students take advantage of this and secure a 4 year reduced tuition agreement with their school. Not only does this help the student financially, it also helps the student academically get through school as soon as possible to avoid a 5th year which would be back to normal pricing.


Also, you have a plan b as well. When you get your financial aid statement, you can request more aid then what is said. Simply give legitimate reasons like financial hardship when emailing your financial aid department. If you are graduating early, you can even do this with scholarship providers by telling them that you are graduating earlier and you wanted extra if possible as the scholarship was for 4 years. Normally freshmen are restricted to large amounts of aid unlike seniors so it's always a good idea to ask if you need more aid. Once again, The same goes with scholarship providers.
This concludes the lecture.
Thank you.