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Article Type

Professional Proficiency

Article Abstract

Related Issue:

Tuition discounting is a tactic deployed by many private four-year institutions as a means for enhancing either tuition revenue or institutional image. This study examines associations between socioeconomic diversity and two aspects of institutional grants—freshman discount rate and freshman grant recipient discount rate—at the 30 largest private not-for-profit schools in the Midwest. Figures from a national database for two time periods, 1999–2001 and 2008–2011, were averaged. Socioeconomic diversity was defined as the percentage of freshmen who received a federal Pell grant. Comparisons of the two time periods revealed that 73.3% of the schools increased socioeconomic diversity, but overall the increase across the study population was small (2.4%). Concurrently, most schools became more selective; freshman acceptance rate declined at 82.1% of the schools and the overall decrease for the study population was 7.3%. In both periods, associations between the socioeconomic diversity and each of the predictor variables (freshman discount rate and freshman grant recipient discount rate) were negative. Overall, the findings indicate that when institutional grant funds were given to a higher proportion of the freshman class, the size of the individual grants and socioeconomic diversity declined.

Author(s)

Jason K. Reinoehl, Ph.D., currently serves as the interim vice president of Enrollment Management and Marketing at the University of Dayton. Located in Dayton, Ohio, the University of Dayton is a top-tier, national Catholic research institution serving over 11,000 students. Reinoehl completed his Ph.D. in educational leadership at the University of Dayton. His research focused on the association of tuition discounting practices with outcomes at the 30 largest four-year private, nonprofit, residential universities in the Midwest. Prior to earning his Ph.D., Jason earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and computer science from Manchester University and an M.B.A. from Valparaiso University. Jason resides in Oakwood, Ohio, with his wife and two daughters.

Theodore J. Kowalski, Ph.D., is professor and the Kuntz Family Endowed Chair in Educational Administration at the University of Dayton. He formerly was a professor at Saint Louis University and Ball State University, serving as dean of the Teachers College at the latter institution. He is the author of 34 books and a myriad of research articles. In 2011, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Association of School Administrators in recognition of his lifelong scholarly contributions to the education profession.

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