College Tuition Discount Rates Reach New High

Jun 4, 2021, 3:23 PM

(From Inside Higher Ed) Average tuition discount rates among private, nonprofit colleges continued to climb in the 2020-21 academic year as many institutions worked to retain and attract students during the pandemic, a new study from the National Association of College and University Business Officers found. In the 2020-21 academic year, private non-profit colleges cut tuition for first-year undergraduates by a record 53.9%, on average. That meant the average freshman paid only 46.1 cents on the tuition dollar. Last year, the average discount rate held steady from the year prior at 51.2 percent. The new study revised initial estimates that had shown the discount rate last year was tracking incrementally higher than the year before.

Inspired by the NACUBO Tuition Discounting Study, NBOA's newly released "Tuition Discounting Report For PK-12 Independent Schools" analyzes financials from 176 member schools in NBOA’s Business Intelligence for Independent Schools (BIIS) data platform to understand the trends in tuition discounting from 2018-2020. NBOA members can view the full report in the NBOA Library, and nonmembers can purchase the report here.

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