Few students actually paid the published cost. Colleges worried that they would be bypassed if families looked just at the sticker price.
Sunshine Anderson was at Mills College’s annual welcoming ceremony in 2017 when the liberal arts college revealed its big news: It was slashing its tuition by more than a third.
Elated, the history major, who is now a senior, immediately spread the word on Twitter and recalled thinking: “Oh, my God, this is going to make a huge difference!”
In the end, it didn’t. Mx. Anderson, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, paid Mills about as much as before tuition was reduced.
But the move could pay off for the school.
Mills is just one of a small but rising number of mostly private liberal arts colleges that say they are cutting their tuition prices. But what they’re actually doing is reducing their advertised rates, which only the wealthiest students usually pay. At the same time, the colleges are also reducing the heavy discounts they offer to everyone else. The result is a new sticker price that more closely reflects what students already pay.