The college admissions and financial aid processes often leave working parents feeling helpless, stressed out, and more than a little disengaged at work. It seems that their children's college careers, future earnings potential, and overall happiness in life is left to the random whims of inscrutable admissions and financial aid officers, and despite hours of fumbling research (often on work time), parents are at a loss as to how to truly improve their children's admissions and financial aid outcomes.
Well, I have a surprise.
The New York Times recently published a preliminary report on this admissions season's yield numbers at several dozen popular colleges. Though not a commonly known or discussed statistic among college applicants and their parents, the annual yield is an incredibly significant number to colleges and their admissions offices.
A college's yield refers to the percentage of accepted applicants who actually choose to enroll at that particular college. Other factors being equal, the higher the yield, the more appealing a college is perceived to be. As yield numbers rise, so does that college's ranking on the various lists of the "top colleges" studied by high school students and their parents. Theoretically, higher yield leads to a higher ranking, which leads to a larger and higher quality applicant pool, which leads to greater selectivity and higher average test scores, which leads to even higher rankings, etc., etc. The college's student body quality, prestige, and revenue stream are all intimately related to its yield.
That puts your employees in a strong position for negotiating scholarship offers. If parents let a college know that their child received a better offer elsewhere and that a small increase in funding would greatly increase the chances their child will enroll, they may see an enhancement to the school's initial offer, saving the family money and a whole lot of stress.
Of course, a parent's negotiation is more likely to be successful at colleges with lower yields or yields on a downward trend than at schools with already high or increasing yields think Dickinson (25 percent yield) or Holy Cross (31 percent yield), as opposed to Harvard (82 percent yield) or Stanford (77 percent yield). Even the most elite universities, however, are very aware of their numbers and rankings in comparison to their chief competitors. So if a parent can demonstrate to Yale, for example, that Princeton provided his child with a higher need-based financial aid offer, Yale may be willing to re-run its calculations to see if it can match Princeton's offer in order to increase the student's chances of enrolling and better its yield in comparison to one of its competitors.
Well, I have a surprise.
Employees have more power than they think
As your employees' children are competing with thousands of other students to be admitted to the colleges of their choice, unbeknownst to parents, colleges are also competing amongst themselves to attract their children.The New York Times recently published a preliminary report on this admissions season's yield numbers at several dozen popular colleges. Though not a commonly known or discussed statistic among college applicants and their parents, the annual yield is an incredibly significant number to colleges and their admissions offices.
A college's yield refers to the percentage of accepted applicants who actually choose to enroll at that particular college. Other factors being equal, the higher the yield, the more appealing a college is perceived to be. As yield numbers rise, so does that college's ranking on the various lists of the "top colleges" studied by high school students and their parents. Theoretically, higher yield leads to a higher ranking, which leads to a larger and higher quality applicant pool, which leads to greater selectivity and higher average test scores, which leads to even higher rankings, etc., etc. The college's student body quality, prestige, and revenue stream are all intimately related to its yield.
Improving employees' negotiating power
Though colleges know they'll never achieve 100 percent yield, they do generally wish to see a greater percentage of their accepted applicants chose to enroll so that their yield number increases. Therefore, if a college accepts your employee's child, they have a vested interest in seeing him or her enroll.That puts your employees in a strong position for negotiating scholarship offers. If parents let a college know that their child received a better offer elsewhere and that a small increase in funding would greatly increase the chances their child will enroll, they may see an enhancement to the school's initial offer, saving the family money and a whole lot of stress.
Of course, a parent's negotiation is more likely to be successful at colleges with lower yields or yields on a downward trend than at schools with already high or increasing yields think Dickinson (25 percent yield) or Holy Cross (31 percent yield), as opposed to Harvard (82 percent yield) or Stanford (77 percent yield). Even the most elite universities, however, are very aware of their numbers and rankings in comparison to their chief competitors. So if a parent can demonstrate to Yale, for example, that Princeton provided his child with a higher need-based financial aid offer, Yale may be willing to re-run its calculations to see if it can match Princeton's offer in order to increase the student's chances of enrolling and better its yield in comparison to one of its competitors.
