Northeastern University on Saturday unveiled a new tuition discount policy under which parents or older siblings of undergraduate students can receive a 25 percent tuition discount if they attend a Northeastern graduate school.
The program is the first of its kind, according to Sundar Kumarasamy, vice president for enrollment management at the Boston school. No other college in the country, to my knowledge, offers parental discounts for graduate admissions.
“We want to ensure that our parents and students have lifelong learning opportunities,” says Kumarasamy. “We just wanted to make it easier for our families while they are recruiting to educate their undergraduate students. We don't want them to delay their career goals or interests they may have. So we just wanted to make it easier for them to explore those opportunities.”
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The announcement of the Northeastern program is part of a larger trend in higher education of colleges offering tuition discounts for family members attending the same school at the same time.
While Kumarasamy says Northeastern is the first to offer a discount to parents of students, several other colleges — such as Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH and Johnson and Wales University in Providence, RI — offer tuition discounts if multiple siblings attend school at the same time. Others, such as Emory University in Atlanta and Boston Universityoffer significant tuition discounts to a student whose parents work for the school.
Kumarasamy says Northeastern's new policy serves to benefit parents who may only be thinking about their child's education.
“Families are investing in their current undergraduate education,” he says. “During that kind of financial investment they're making in their child's education, we don't want them not to be focused on their goals and their opportunities as well.”
Parents whose children attend Northeastern can enroll in any of the school's graduate programs, whether online or on-campus, and still qualify for the 25 percent discount, Kumarasamy says.
“We really think this could be a very useful benefit for our parents and students and the interest has been huge so far, and we think this can start the conversation that sometimes they can be delayed or put off, that can it makes them think seriously about it and explore their career and life goals.”
Elizabeth Keuffel, Saint Alselm's director of financial aid, says at her school, siblings get $3,000 off their tuition if they attend at the same time. And Northeastern's parenting program, he says, is a “good marketing tool.”
“It's a pretty significant discount, frankly,” Keuffel says. “Then you look at the net revenue you get for the price of two, so it's cost effective for them.”
Ben Simonds-Malamud, a freshman at Northeastern, says he agrees with Keuffel that the discounted tuition program seems like a marketing tool.
“It certainly seems like a program that will expand access to education, but I don't know how much of a difference the discount will make since 75% of tuition is still a lot,” he says. “Maybe I'm being cynical, but this strikes me as more of a smart business decision on Northeastern's part than anything else.”
Still, Keuffel says schools ultimately aim to build brand and loyalty, which is why they're focusing on keeping families together by lowering tuition.
“When you believe in a product it's easier to share it in a family,” he says.
And it's a trend she's experienced firsthand in her 14 years at Saint Alselm.
“I find myself meeting the brothers as he goes. I often work with a family for, maybe, eight years,” he says. “I met a mom the other day, she was like, 'She's the last one coming.' And I think 'wow!'”
Orli Hendler, a sophomore at Emory, has personally benefited from a family tuition discount and says it has helped her and her family tremendously. Hendler's father works for Emory Healthcare and said he was one of the main reasons she chose to attend the school. .
“Even though it means I don't get to experience a new city in college, I get a lot of benefits from the courtesy scholarship,” she says. “I don't have to worry about overloading my class schedule to get the most out of my money, and I feel free to join as many organizations as I want… I don't have to limit my activities because of their cost. “
J.
This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source created for students by student journalists. The blog closed in September 2017.
