By the time the usual May 1 college deposit deadline rolled around this year, David Berger’s daughter had already made up her mind: She would leave Alpharetta, Ga., and become a Penn State Nittany Lion.
But Syracuse University, which had also accepted her, wasn’t done with her yet. After having initially offered exactly zero merit aid, its staff began a poaching campaign.
A $20,000-per-year offer arrived on May 2. Then came a $10,000-per-year discount two days later. Weeks went by before Syracuse dangled an additional $20,000 per year.
“Spaces will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis,” that last email said.
All of this left the scores of families that received similar offers scratching their heads. “It’s almost like they’ve turned into used car salesmen,” said Mr. Berger, whose daughter is sticking with Penn State.
Syracuse appears to have played chicken with children and lost. Having lowballed their parents in March and April, the school presumably came up many heads short for its newest class. Once May rolled around, it had to offer eye-popping discounts to steal kids away from other schools.
I had hoped to have an open-ended conversation with Syracuse administrators about the school’s tactics. Instead, Jeff Stoecker, the chief communications officer, sent me a statement.
“Each admissions cycle brings its own distinct elements and trends, and this year is no exception. As always, we are employing a wide range of strategies to enroll exceptionally talented students who demonstrate promise, regardless of their financial means. We are confident we will meet our enrollment goals and welcome an exceptional cohort of students in August.”
It was not preordained that Syracuse would end up in this predicament. Last month, it boasted of a record-breaking number of applications.
But the full, nondiscounted cost of attendance at Syracuse stands at $92,128 per year for students who are living on campus and not using the school’s health insurance. For snobs inclined to sneer — this is, after all, higher than what M.I.T. charges — the market gets to decide what Syracuse is worth, and 19 percent of its undergraduates in one recent class paid the full price.
But this year appears to be different. When the stock market wobbles and people worry that extended trade wars may cost them their jobs, they may be more reluctant.
Meanwhile, just under 20 percent of Syracuse’s undergraduates are from somewhere other than the United States. Many of them pay that full price.
Given President Trump’s threats toward international students, it’s possible that large numbers of them decided not to study in the United States next year.
Syracuse could have chosen to lick its wounds and run a deficit, but that could have meant layoffs or cuts to beloved programs. Instead, it chose to hand out merit aid, and its high list price made its discount amounts pop, even if up to $50,000 off its annual costs still didn’t bring the net price down to what many competing schools charge.
By early May — and certainly by the end of the month — it needed to do something dramatic to change people’s minds. After all, many high school seniors do an Instagram sweatshirt reveal by May 1, a bed party right after with hundreds of dollars of swag from the chosen institution and a simultaneous scramble on Instagram and Snapchat to find a roommate before all the good people are paired off.
Once all that’s done, switching schools requires a pretty big leap.
To Walt Counsell, a 17-year-old high school senior who is set to attend the University of Maryland even after Syracuse threw another $140,000 his way after May 1, Syracuse’s tactics were a bit weird.
By the time Syracuse was done, it had offered him a SUccess award, an Orange award, a Personal Distinction Award and a Chancellor’s Scholarship. (Who names these things, anyway? Syracuse’s chancellor, Kent Syverud, and several members of his staff did not respond to requests for comment on the money that the school gives out in his name. )
Mr. Counsell, who lives in Montclair, N.J., said he was grateful for the offers, even at such a late stage. But he neither wanted nor needed them and couldn’t figure out why he was targeted. “I think there were better candidates out there who could use the money to avoid debt,” he said.
Jessica Levitt and her son had appealed to Syracuse twice in April for more merit aid and received only an extra $5,000. The Bridgewater, N.J., senior chose the University of Pittsburgh, only to have Syracuse show up in his inbox on May 28 with another $20,000 per year.
Ms. Levitt, too, was intensely grateful for the offer, but its lack of explanation made her uneasy.
“Since this level of late offers is unprecedented and they didn’t tell us why, we couldn’t help but feel that they are desperate,” she said via email. “Are they in trouble financially? Are they now going to over-enroll and cause other problems? Do they just generally not have their act together?”
Syracuse’s strategy suggests a number of countermoves for people applying to Syracuse next year during the regular decision round.
First, do not take its initial price quote seriously. Ditto for any other school that wheels and deals each spring. Ask around for names of institutions like that, or consult the ace parents in the Paying for College 101 Facebook group about the schools on your list.
Once you see the first offers, ask for more money if you think you need it to afford the place or deserve it given the applicant’s academic prowess.
Then, sit tight and don’t commit until the deadline day. You will be initiating the game of chicken with your inaction, instead of the other way around.
This may not be prudent at schools that give housing priority to people who send in deposits sooner. But the rest of them? Maybe, through our silence all April, we can spook schools into making their best and final offers before May 1.
Jon Boeckenstedt, who will be vice provost of enrollment management at Oregon State until he retires this summer, said in an interview that he had no particular objection to a call for consumer action. He’s skeptical, however, that it will work in a nation where collectivism is not much of a thing.
But why not try? When you corner his colleagues at the bar after midnight at conventions of admissions professionals, as I have, they swill beer and spit bile over merit aid and the need to bid for students.
If we all act in concert, we parents just may do them a giant favor — and save ourselves some money in the process.
Ron Lieber has been the Your Money columnist since 2008 and has written five books, most recently “The Price You Pay for College.”
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