Never Pay Retail for College: How Smart Parents Find the Right School for the Right Price by Beth V Walker

Author:Beth V Walker [Walker, Beth V]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Prussian Press
Published: 2017-03-27T17:00:00+00:00

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The University of Alabama’s dominance on the football field is legendary. The Crimson Tide’s success comes from the aggressive recruiting around the country. Last year’s recruiting class included 27 players from 15 states—many of whom were four- and five-star prospects.

What most people don’t know is that the University of Alabama takes the same intense approach when recruiting top out-of-state students. The school has at least 30 full-time admissions officers spread throughout the country. And they come armed with generous merit-based scholarship packages to lure high-achieving students to their school.

It wasn’t always so. In the late 1990’s, the University of Alabama’s admissions office had become complacent. While the admissions staff did some recruiting, the staff generally expected students to be interested in the school because of its long history and status as a flagship university. Heading into the new century, the university, which marketed itself mainly on athletic programs and social traditions, was having trouble attracting top students.

Enter Robert E. Witt, the former business school dean at the University of Texas at Austin and president of the University of Texas at Arlington. Upon taking the presidency of the University of Alabama in 2003, he laid down a challenge to the admissions office: to “recruit top student scholars with the same fervor as top athletic prospects, and look beyond the state’s borders to find them.”

In the years since, the university has been remarkably successful in attracting nonresident students. Today, in fact, there are more out-of-state students on campus that in-state ones—a strategy that has helped the school weather large-scale budget cuts from the state. Admissions officers at several public universities in different parts of the country said in interviews recently that Alabama has been actively recruiting in their home states. “Alabama has recruiters everywhere,” a top official from a competing flagship university stated. “It’s really played well for them.”

The University of Alabama is not alone in its aggressive pursuit of out-of-state students. Over the past two decades, there has been a fundamental shift in the admissions practices of many public four-year colleges and universities. Stung by sharp state budget cuts at the same time they are seeking greater prestige, these universities are increasingly pitted against one another, fiercely competing for students that they most desire: the best, the brightest, and those wealthy enough to pay full freight. And they are using a large share of their institutional dollars—money that could be going to students that truly need it—to entice these generally privileged students to their schools.

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