打折无效，美国小型学院改打降价牌

Getting Out of Discount Game, Small Colleges Lower the Price

打折无效，美国小型学院改打降价牌

A higher education riddle: When can a college slash tuition by almost half, without losing revenues? Answer: When nobody much pays full tuition anyway.

一道高等教育谜题：一所学院什么时候可以削减近一半学费，而不会损失收入?谜底：当没有人支付全额学费的时候。

When Converse College, a tiny women’s college here, announced that it was “resetting” next year’s tuition at $16,500, down 43 percent from the current year’s published price of $29,000, the talk was about affordability, transparency and a better deal for struggling families.

肯弗斯学院(Converse College)打算把明年的学费“重新设定”为1.65万美元，较本年度公布的2.9万美元学费下降43%。宣布这项消息时，这所小规模女子学院强调的是经济承受能力和透明度，并且声称这样做更有利于经济困难家庭。

But of Converse’s 700 undergraduates, only a small number — in the single digits, its president said, paid the full sticker price in recent years. Almost everyone received a tuition discount from the college, along with, in many cases, financial aid from the state and federal governments.

但近些年来，在肯弗斯学院的700名本科生中，只有少数学生全额按标价支付了学费——该校校长透露说，这个数字是个位数。几乎每位学生都获得了该校给予的学费折扣，还有很多人获得州和联邦政府发放的助学金。

Now, like some other small private colleges, Converse is cutting tuition and reducing discounts. Betsy Fleming, Converse’s president, said the tuition discount rate would drop to 25 percent, well below the national average, from the current 56 percent. The college will still offer aid to talented students, but only to the extent covered by its $39 million endowed scholarship funds.

现在，像其他小规模私立院校一样，肯弗斯学院打算削减学费，并减少折扣。该校校长贝特西·弗莱明(Betsy Fleming)表示，学费折扣率将从目前的56%下降至25%，远低于全美平均水平。这所学院仍将资助优秀学生，但只在该校3900万奖学基金够付的范围内。

While Converse’s reset was the most drastic, others including Concordia University in Oregon, Ashland University in Ohio, Ave Maria University in Florida, Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina and Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage, have also recently announced tuition cuts.

尽管肯弗斯学院的学费调整幅度非常大，但其他高等院校最近也宣布了削减学费的计划，比如俄勒冈州的康考迪亚大学(Concordia University)、俄亥俄州的阿什兰大学(Ashland University)、佛罗里达州的圣母颂大学(Ave Maria University)、北卡罗莱纳州的贝尔蒙特大学(Belmont Abbey College)，以及位于阿拉斯加安克雷奇市的阿拉斯加太平洋学院(Alaska Pacific University)。

For decades, most private college pricing has reflected the Chivas Regal effect — the notion that whether in a Scotch or a school, a higher price indicates higher quality.

大多数私立院校几十年来的学费定价反映了芝华士(Chivas Regal)效应——无论是一瓶苏格兰威士忌，还是一所学校，高价象征着高质量。

“Schools wanted a high tuition on the assumption that families would say that if they’re charging that high tuition, they must be right up there with the Ivies,” said David L. Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. “So schools would set a high tuition, then discount it. But when the schools in your peer group all have discounts, it becomes an untenable competition for students, with everyone having to increase their discounts.”

“学校想设定一个较高的学费，因为他们推想，学生家长准会说，要是收这么高的学费，其教学水平肯定也达到了常春藤院校级别，”全美独立学院和大学协会(National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities)主席大卫·沃伦(David L. Warren)这样说道。“所以，学校往往会设定一个较高的学费，然后打折。但当同档次院校都在打折的时候，你就必须加大折扣力度，对于学生来说，这样的竞争是站不脚的。”

At the nation’s most selective institutions, discounts are usually reserved for low- and middle-income students, and a third to a half of students pay the full sticker price. But colleges without a national reputation pass out discounts, in the form of aid, with a free hand — and not just to needy students.

在全美最难进的高等院校，校方通常把折扣预留给中低收入学生，三分之一到一半学生支付全额学费。但许多缺乏全国知名度的院校往往采用资助的方式随意打折，享受折扣政策的不仅仅是家境困难学生。

“About a quarter of students at independent colleges are full-pay, and at institutions with small endowments and small name recognition, it’s single-digit,” Mr. Warren said.

“在独立学院，大约四分之一的学生支付全额学费，而在一些捐赠基金较少，知名度较低的院校，只有个位数学生这样做，”沃伦说。

Over all, private colleges discounted freshman tuition by 45 percent last year, a new high, according to a survey by the National Association of College and University Business Officers, and the share of freshmen getting institutional aid rose to 87 percent last year, from 80 percent in 2002, also a new high.

根据全美学院和大学商务官员协会(National Association of College and University Business Officers)的一项调查，总体而言，私立院校去年向新生提供的学费折扣率为45%，再创新高;去年获得校方资助的新生比例从2012年的80%攀升至87%，也创下了历史新高。

For all but the top-tier private colleges, these are tough times. Enrollment is flat or declining in many parts of the country. In November, Moody’s issued a report finding that more than 40 percent of colleges and universities face falling or stagnant tuition revenue. With family incomes stalled, many bargain-seeking students are drawn to public institutions. And for colleges that are not well known, the race to lure students with big discounts is becoming unsustainable.

现在，除个别顶尖名校外，大多数私立院校的日子都不好过。在美国许多地区，私立院校的在校学生人数不升反降。穆迪公司(Moody’s)11月份发布的一份报告称，超过40%的学院和大学面临学费收入不断下降或陷入停滞的局面。由于家庭收入停滞不前，许多打算上学费低廉大学的学生被吸引到公立院校。对于那些名声不够响亮的学院来说，以大幅折扣吸引学生的竞争越来越难以持续。

As a result, many private colleges are rethinking their pricing — whether cutting or freezing tuition, or locking in the freshman tuition for all four years.

其结果是，许多私立院校正在反思其定价策略——要么准备降低或冻结学费，要么将大学四年的学费定为固定费用。

“Whether you in fact make it more affordable with a reset or a freeze is not clear, since net revenues tend to come out about the same,” said Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges. “But there’s a public assumption that private higher ed is unaffordable, so anything that gets people’s attention and lets you have the conversation explaining that most people don’t pay full price, that it is within reach, is very important.”

“现在还不清楚重新设定或固定学费是不是可以减轻学生的负担，因为净营收很可能跟以前差不多，”独立学院理事会(Council of Independent Colleges)主席理查德·埃克曼(Richard Ekman)说。“但公众往往以为，他们负担不起私立高等教育。因此，任何措施，只要能够吸引大家的注意力，让你有机会解释大多数学生并没有全额付费，学费完全在承受范围内的，都是非常重要的。”

Sewanee, the University of the South, reduced its overall cost of attendance — tuition, fees, room and board — by 10 percent in 2011 to be more competitive with the public universities elsewhere in Tennessee, and in Georgia.

2011年，西沃恩南方大学(Sewanee, the University of the South)将其上学总成本(包括学费、杂费和食宿费)降低了10%，以加强相对于田纳西州和乔治亚州公立大学的竞争力。

“We’re happy with it,” said the vice chancellor, John M. McCardell Jr. “Our applications continue to grow, our selectivity and yield and retention are all improving.”

“我们很乐意这样做，”副校长小约翰·M·麦克卡代尔(John M. McCardell Jr.)说：“我们的申请人数持续增长，我们的新生素质、报到率和返校率均在改善。”

True, costs have crept back up, almost to the $46,100 pre-cut level, but Sewanee now guarantees that tuition will not increase during a student’s four years at the college.

没错，上学成本已经悄然回升，几乎恢复至降价前的水平(46100美元)，但西沃恩南方大学现在做出保证，大学四年的学费不会增加。

With growing sensitivity to tuition increase, such fixed-rate guarantees are becoming more widespread. Just this week, Northland College in Wisconsin became the latest to announce such a step.

随着人们对学费上涨越来越敏感，这种学费固定不变的承诺正变得越来越普遍。就在本周，威斯康星州的诺思兰学院(Northland College)成为最新一家宣布这项步骤的大学。

Roger Williams University in Rhode Island turned to fixed-rate tuition after some market research.

罗德岛的罗杰·威廉姆斯大学(Roger Williams University)是在经过一番市场调研后，转向学费固定政策的。

“When I got here in June 2011, there were so few people paying full price that one wondered why we bothered,” said Donald Farish, the university’s president. “If everybody’s getting a discount, the notion that there is a full price is almost meaningless. It’s a model that makes no sense, and makes you feel like you’re in a Middle Eastern souk bargaining with the tourists who just arrived.”

“2011年6月份刚到这里时，几乎没有几个学生支付全额学费，以至于有人纳闷我们为什么要操这份心，”该校校长唐纳德·法里什(Donald Farish)说。“如果每个人都能拿到折扣，全额学费就差不多是一个毫无意义的概念。这种模式根本就讲不通，它让你觉得你正在一个中东集市上跟刚来的游客讨价还价。”

Mr. Farish talked to the board about cutting tuition “to present a more authentic number,” and hired consultants, Maguire Associates, to find out whether current and prospective families would prefer a campus that charged $23,000 or one that charged $36,000 but offered an average of $13,000 in aid.

法里什建议董事会把学费削减至“一个更真实的数字，”并聘请马古力顾问咨询公司(Maguire Associates)调查，目前和潜在的学生家庭究竟是喜欢大学收2.3万美元学费，还是喜欢大学收3.6万美元，但平均提供1.3万美元的资助。

To Mr. Farish’s surprise, twice as many families preferred the high-cost, high-discount approach, and the consultants warned that cutting tuition would cut the freshman class in half. So instead, Mr. Farish has locked in freshman tuition for four years. This year, the university overshot its enrollment target by 100 students, he said, bringing in 40 more freshmen, and retaining 60 more sophomores, “which I think was largely because their tuition didn’t go up.”

令法里什惊讶的是，青睐高收费高折扣方式的家庭竟然是另一类家庭的两倍。咨询顾问警告说，削减学费将导致入学新生减半。经过权衡，法里什最终决定固定新生学费，四年不变。今年，这所大学的学生人数比招生目标多了100人，多招了40名新生，多留下了60名大二学生，“我认为，这主要是因为学费没有上涨。”他说。

But the consultant who worked with Converse and Concordia, Kevin W. Crockett of Noel-Levitz, said tuition cuts can be useful at colleges where the high sticker price is scaring off students, few pay full freight, and where the school is reasonably healthy over all.

但在受聘于肯弗斯学院和康考迪亚大学的Noel-Levitz公司咨询师凯文·W·克罗克特(Kevin W. Crockett)看来，如果某些院校有可能因高收费而吓跑学生，很少有人支付全额费用，而学校整体表现比较健康，削减学费或许能够产生一些效果。

“If the school’s doing badly, a tuition cut can look like an act of desperation,” he said. “Also, it has to be part of an overall business strategy, emphasizing the program.”

“要是学校自身的表现很差劲，削减学费看上去就像是一种走投无路的绝望行为，”他说。“此外，它必须是一项旨在增强学校实力的整体商业战略的组成部分。”

Converse, the nation’s only women’s college competing in Division II sports, met those conditions. After some difficult years, the college is on an upswing, with the largest freshman class in years, a new genetics counseling program, a new field house and a strong music school.

作为全美唯一一所加入大学联赛乙组(Division II)的女子院校，肯弗斯学院符合这些条件。熬过几个艰难的学年之后，这所学院终于拨云见日，不仅新生人数达历年之最，还新设了一个遗传学咨询项目，一座体育馆和一个阵容强大的音乐学系。

While the reset will have little effect on net revenue per student, Ms. Fleming said, the lower sticker price should increase interest in the school. Indeed both applications and donations have increased.

弗莱明校长说，尽管重设学费对每位学生带来的净营收影响不大，但更低的标价应该会加大学校的感召力。事实上，申请人数和捐款金额均有所增长。

“We’re taking the fear of the price tag out of the equation on the front end,” she said. “When I think about tuition discounting, it seems deceptive, like a smoke-and-mirrors game. I think a majority of colleges like us could do exactly what we’re doing if they trusted that they don’t have to buy students.”

“我们正在摆脱对学费价码的恐惧，”她说。“一想到不断打折的学费，我就觉得它带有欺骗性，就像障眼术。我认为，大多数像我们这样的院校完全可以做我们正在做的事情，如果他们确信自己没必要收买学生的话。”