Higher education: A study of the affects of tuition discounting on price and enrollment in the Ivy League schools

An undergraduate education at selective institutions comes with a large price tag (Cornell University, 2003). The Ivy League Group consists of eight institutions located in the northeastern part of the United States. These are some of America's oldest colleges and universities and most prestigious in the world. Nevertheless, no student should decide not to apply to a college or university because he or she believes it is too expensive and beyond his or her reach. Very few students pay the published price for higher education, public or private. Therefore, this study determined the affects of tuition discounting on the price of higher education and enrollment in the Ivy League Institutions for full-time, first-time undergraduate students. Descriptive quantitative research methodology is used in this study. Multiple linear regression models are used as the instrument to determine the relationship between the dependent variable (institutional aid) and the independent variables (enrollment, acceptance rate, tuition, and total price of attendance). This method gives the researcher a reasonably accurate prediction of the relationship between the variables to draw unbiased conclusions. Because the Ivy League schools have low acceptance rates for full-time, first-time undergraduates, they are able to increase institutional aid which decreases the price of education to students, while enrollment remains constant or decreases based on set acceptance rates. Once a student is admitted, each school can offer more institutional aid and federal financial aid in a financial aid package to a student. Thus, the strategy of financial aid packaging with a need-blind admission policy is nothing more than a form of tuition discounting based on a set acceptance rate for enrollment of first-year, full-time students in the Ivy League schools.