On our usual trip across country, we at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama to comment on its pricing model.
To understand the business model of the University you intend to join is important so you can control the cost of your Higher Education with the help of Financial Aid. Watch out this short video about this beautiful University or read the transcript below:
Educational Consultant
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I had a great visit here at Samford University, really beautiful, beautiful campus. One of the things I learned about today was, it was a great lesson actually in the idea of discount rates, Samford University is actually cheaper, the sticker price of tuition is cheaper than a lot of other private universities and they use that as a huge selling point about why you ought to consider coming to Samford. The interesting thing is that they really don’t discount tuition too much. They do provide financial aid for some students, but fully one-third of the students who come here pay the full price of tuition.
Now at other universities, even the other ones I’ve been visiting in the south, the other private universities, they actually have a much higher tuition rate but they discount the tuition for a much larger percentage of the students.
So, when I talk to my clients, and I always talk about the fact that most students will not pay the sticker price when they are accepted to a private university, but parents will also be looking at that sticker price and doing comparison shopping, say between Samford and let’s say, Vanderbilt or even Birmingham Southern, and they say, “Whoa, the sticker price at those other places is so much more than it is at a place like Samford”. Well, if you’re paying full price for tuition or if you’re planning to pay full price, then yes, Samford is a deal. But if you are looking for financial aid, you may get less financial aid at a place like Samford than you would at a place that has a higher sticker price.
So that’s a really confusing reality of the way universities, which are businesses, price their product or their service. So it was a fascinating discovery here. I enjoyed my time very much and I think that they provide a really great educational product here but I thought it was really interesting to learn about their pricing structure.
