"Jim is very responsive to questions that come up during the course of the project. He does an outstanding job of explaining the leveraging process so that all parties are comfortable with the strategy ultimately adopted by the institution."


– Gary L. Hamme,
Vice Provost for Enrollment Management, Florida Institute of Technology

Sample Strategies

When you plan to change award strategies, it's best to do so in measured increments, sometimes over a number of years. By using this aproach, you can accomplish your institution’s objectives, while continuing to assess periodically, thereby minimizing your overall risk.

The best way to understand how financial aid leveraging can help your institution is by seeing a decision model in action. Below are examples of sample strategies:

Goal: Increase Enrollment in Higher Ability Students While Preserving Net Tuition Revenue

By increasing discount to these admitted students, the college can increase it's headcount and maintain net tuition revenue. To many enrollment professionals, this notion might be counterintuitive, but under certain circumstances, this strategy is a better way to achieve your institution’s goals.

Higher Ability Graph

(Click on graph to view larger image.)

Goal: Decrease Enrollment in Lower Ability Students While Preserving Net Tuition Revenue

By reducing the number of lower quality students, a college can increase its average SAT score and look better in the rankings. This financial aid leveraging model enables colleges to test strategies interactively before a final plan is put in place.

The net impact of these two plans is that the college has replaced 15 lower-ability students with 22 higher-ability students without significant negative impact on net tuition revenue.

Lower Ability Graph

(Click on graph to view larger image.)