There is a new scholarship that is being offered by Strayer University that could cut about 30% of the cost of tuition for a degree, according to a recent report. Other for-profit schools have recently boosted their grant aid as well. This suggests that the industry may be slowly warming to discounting tuition that is so common with regular universities.
These days, for-profit colleges have several reasons to consider discounting tuition. Many of these schools have seen steep declines in enrollment. A scholarship can help to encourage many students to enroll. These aid programs also can help to get the student to graduate. This would help to increase the retention rate for many for profits, which is one of the problems with such degree programs.
Also, scholarships can be used to get better quality students to sign up. This could include students with higher grades who are more likely to stick the program out and graduate, and also students who have more money who are less likely to seek loans.
Discounting tuition also can help these schools run into trouble with federal regulations; providing more grant aid can decrease the median debt levels of some students.
Strayer is not the only for profit that is discounting tuition. At Capella University and DeVry University, there also are hefty tuition discounts. But Strayer offers the biggest pay off. The biggest scholarship at Strayer right now will reduce your tuition bill by $17,000. This program is called the Experienced Student Completion Scholarship. It is worth a total of $1000 each semester and it can be used 17 times.
A bachelor’s degree at Strayer costs around $72,000, so the tuition discount could be as much as 30%. Students need to have some college experience to qualify for this scholarship, and need to have at least a 2.5 GPA.