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accessible to a broad base of students who believe BSC to be out of
their nancial reach,” said David M. Smith ’79, chair of the Board
of Trustees. “Board members gave this goal our full support.”
A working group of BSC administrators and board
representatives convened to begin investigating ways to accomplish
that objective. Along with initiatives such
as test-optional admission and efforts to
be more welcoming to transfer students—
both tackled in 2016-17—a tuition reset
quickly came to the forefront.
“Only a handful of colleges have
reset their tuition in the past ve years,”
said BSC board member Denson N.
Franklin III ’85, who served on the
working group. “To learn how to do a successful reset, we spoke
with administrators at these colleges because they share our
commitment to nudging the entire private higher education
industry toward a better pricing model.”
“The teams at places like Concordia University in Minnesota,
Converse College in South Carolina, and Utica College in
New York—which have experienced great results in improving
access and increasing enrollment with their tuition resets—
were generous in sharing the ‘lessons learned’ during their own
planning and implementation processes,” Flaherty-Goldsmith
said.
From there, the leadership team commissioned a series of
studies. A survey of applicants who were admitted for fall 2016 but
chose not to enroll revealed that price topped the list as the single
most important reason for not selecting BSC. A pricing research
study among prospective students found that only 27 percent
would even consider a college with a total price above $40,000.
The research also revealed that an inherent preference for
state universities—either because of their lower sticker price or
because of generational and sports-related familiarity—means
only 13 percent of Alabama high school students prefer to attend
a private college.
“The study con rmed what our admissions counselors had
been hearing on the ground,” Newhouse said. “It also revealed
that Alabama students are more likely than students from other
states to rule out a college simply because of a high sticker price.”
Next, the Birmingham-Southern team conducted several
rounds of nancial aid modeling to determine the potential
impacts of a tuition reset on enrollment and the composition of
the student body.
“The students in our market would rather apply to a high-quality
college like BSC if it has a total published price of $30,000, as
opposed to assuming they’ll get enough nancial aid if the price
is $50,000,” said Eli Phillips, BSC’s vice president of business and
nance. “Our models showed we can achieve our institutional
revenue and growth objectives by targeting students with this
preference, since families across all income levels feel this way.”
Once the college determined that a tuition reset was scally
responsible, campus administrators began detailed planning not
only for its implementation, but also for spreading the word to
students and families. Beginning this fall, a concerted awareness
campaign will highlight the overall value of a BSC education, in
terms of both what students pay and what they get.
How the reset works
For the 2018-19 academic year beginning next fall, BSC’s
published price for tuition and fees will drop by more than 50
percent. The rates for room and board will remain the same as
this year. And the total published price for tuition, fees, room,
and board will now fall below $30,000 for one of the best
educational experiences in the South.
This change resets BSC’s tuition price back to what it was more
than 15 years ago. The “sticker price” had climbed signi cantly
due to standard annual percentage increases. Yet this rise
is deceiving, because at the same time the college has been
awarding very large merit scholarships and institutional need-
based grants—meaning few students actually paid anywhere close
to the full retail price. This “high tuition, high discount” model
has become the norm for small private colleges, and one that
BSC will buck with the reset.
With a lower published tuition price, Birmingham-Southern
won’t need to offer those huge nancial aid packages to get
students to an affordable nal gure. That means the college
can lower the dollar amounts of scholarship and grant awards
without any consequence to current students. And it will allow
BSC to make the best possible use of the generous scholarship
gifts alumni and other donors provide.
Federal and state nancial aid will continue to be awarded to
its fullest extent. Currently enrolled students who receive merit-
and need-based aid directly from BSC will see the dollar amount
of their awards go down by the same amount as the published
price for tuition and fees.
Without a reset, all students would have seen a standard
increase in tuition and fees of about four percent next year.
Instead, most returning students will pay exactly what they
are paying this year in 2018-19. BSC is guaranteeing that no
Chart & graph for reset/cover story
Chart:
Before and After the Reset
2017-18
2018-19
Change
Tuition & Fees
$35,840
$17,650
ê
50.75%
Room & Board
$12,300
$12,300
0%
Total Published* Price
$48,140
$29,950
ê
37.79%
*Need-based and/or merit-based financial aid is awarded to qualifying students to lower
their actual cost even further.
Graph:
A Trajectory for Future Savings
The reset for 2018-19 prevents what would have been a standard annual increase of 3.9 percent to
Before and a er the reset
The total published price for tuition, fees, room,
and board will now fall below $30,000 for one of
the best educational experiences in the South.