Cabrini College announces tuition sale

With college tuitions at record highs and families in a mood for bargains, a handful of institutions - including Cabrini College in Radnor - are doing what once seemed unthinkable: cutting prices.

Cabrini, a small, private Catholic school on the Main Line, announced it was reducing tuition 12.5 percent, from $33,176 to $29,000. The price will take effect for the 2012-13 school year and remain at that level through May 2015. Housing and fees are about $13,000 extra.

Other schools are offering even bigger discounts. Seton Hall in South Orange, N.J., another small Catholic college, will charge high-achieving students the same rate as nearby Rutgers University, $21,000, compared with its current price of $45,000 with room and board. About 20 percent of accepted students are expected to qualify.

Cabrini president Marie Angelella George said that, by keeping tuition less than $30,000, the college was looking to help struggling families while attracting new students who might not have considered the school.

"There have been spiraling costs and much concern about the cost of college education," she said. "Couple that with the recent state of the economy, and we feel that we're taking a stand."

It's no secret that college costs are going through the roof. Last month, a College Board survey said tuition at private schools rose 4.3 percent this year, while public college rates went up 5.4 percent.

Over the last decade, public-school tuition has risen at an annual rate of 5.6 percent vs. 3 percent at private schools, according to the College Board.

By bucking the trend, Cabrini and other small, independent colleges are hoping to compete with cheaper public institutions and other private schools that may continue boosting tuition.

"These aren't the University of Pennsylvania or Harvard. Small independents are coming up short a little bit, and they have to hustle in an attempt to meet their numbers," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

Admissions experts say the actual savings to students may not be much, since colleges increasingly discount sticker prices with grants and scholarships. As college tuitions climbed, so did financial aid, leaving few students to pay the nominal rates.

Seton Hall, for instance, gives out $62 million in scholarships, covering more than 90 percent of its students.

Slashing prices is "just a different presentation of the same basic financial scenario," said Nassirian.

It allows schools to shift the pricing structure without losing revenue, said Harold Hartley, senior vice president of the Council of Independent Colleges, which has 605 members.

"Instead of giving away money, they're charging less, so the net that most students are going to pay isn't going to change that much," he said.

Sewanee: The University of the South was the first to announce a sale, in the spring, followed by Lincoln College in Illinois, the University of Charleston in West Virginia, and Seton Hall and Cabrini this fall.

Even if they aren't saving money, families at least will have a better idea of how much they're going to shell out for a college education. Right now, "it's very confusing for students and parents to understand that if the sticker price is high," said Hartley, "what they actually pay might be comparable" to a public college.

George said Cabrini, which has 1,360 undergraduates, would not reduce merit aid, which this year was $28.5 million, with an average of $23,000 per student. She said she believed the school was the only one to cut tuition without touching scholarships, although she could not say how much aid would be awarded to next year's class.

The last time tuition was less than $30,000 was 2007 when enrollment was 1,842. George said the school purposely reduced the student body size, but now would like to bump it up to about 1,500.

Students relished the news. Chelbi Mims, 20, a junior communication major from Houston, said everyone at school was happy about the announcement.

Even though she pays about half the listed price, there are travel and other expenses to consider, she said, so "my parents are really excited about it."