ELIZABETHTOWN, Lancaster County — Calling it a “bold step” in “addressing the rising cost of college tuition,” Elizabethtown College announced Wednesday that it plans to lower tuition to $32,000 — a 32-percent decrease — for the 2019-20 academic year.
The program, called Tuition Transparency, makes Elizabethtown the first college in Central Pennsylvania to address the cost of tuition, the school said.
To this point, most colleges, Elizabethtown included, subscribed to a high tuition-high discount pricing model, the school said in its announcement.
“This means that significant financial aid is awarded to students as a means of offsetting the high cost of college tuition,” the school’s announcement said. “While some students and their families appreciate large financial aid awards, many don’t know they are eligible for financial aid or don’t understand how financial aid structuring works.”
Results of the 2017 Sallie Mae/Ipsos survey, “How America Pays for College,” indicated that more than 69 percent of families surveyed eliminated a college during the selection process because of cost.
“True to those results, many students see what they think is a bottom-line price at Elizabethtown, and, therefore, view an E-town education as unattainable,” the school’s announcement said.
In the past year, President Carl Strikwerda, the College’s senior staff and its Board of Trustees evaluated options for making tuition easier to understand. They centered on Tuition Transparency, because it places easy-to-grasp numbers right up front, so students and their families can understand more clearly how much they will pay for college.
With the introduction of several new business and engineering programs and master’s degrees, the College’s four-year graduation guarantee, construction of the Bowers Center for Sports, Fitness and Well-being and new housing options, “now is the time to focus on making tuition at Elizabethtown more transparent,” said President Strikwerda.
“There is great momentum at the College,” he said. “Addressing college tuition is central to ensuring that the momentum continues.”
The Tuition Transparency initiative is part of the College’s new “You-Minded” marketing campaign, which begins today in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
SOURCE: Elizabethtown College
