Pledge public financial aid to eliminate tuition sticker shock

Two-year to four-yearappliesFour-year to two-yearwith adaptationFour-year to four-yearwith adaptation

Mechanism

A public promise caps what a student will pay out of pocket, which takes the sticker price off the table as a reason not to apply. The target is the students who never apply at all.

Preconditions

Financial modeling of institutional aid, state grants and Pell to set a cap the institution can sustain.

Owner, by role

VP of Enrollment Management / President

Who can act

One institution alone

Effort

Medium, 6 months to first visible effect

Outcome metric

Applications from targeted low-income partner colleges

Failure modes

If the pledge is poorly communicated or heavily buried in bureaucratic fine print, its psychological impact is lost on prospective applicants.

Contra-indications

None stated

Related practices

LTI-OPS-011 Secure tuition guarantees locking university rates at community levels
LTI-OPS-014 Offer institutional merit scholarships targeting community college GPAs