STRATEGIC FINANCIAL CONSULTING

Tuition Pricing, Discounting and Price Resets Page

Lapovsky Consulting is known for its work with secondary schools and colleges and universities on setting the appropriate tuition and establishing the institution’s discounting policy in order to meet its goals which usually involve maximizing net tuition revenue and attaining certain enrollments. Dr. Lapovsky was one of the pioneers in the field of tuition discounting going back to 1990 when she began writing an annual article for the National Association of College University Officers on Tuition Discounting. She has written on the topic for the National Association of Independent Schools and is a frequent speaker at major national meetings of higher education associations. 

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As the average tuition discount rate at private colleges and universities has continued to grow and now exceeds 54% for freshmen, many schools, especially those with discount rates in excess of 60% are questioning their tuition and discounting strategy. Parents and students are unable to predict what their net price will be before applying to a school and there is significant data which indicates that students and their families will not look at schools with prices above a certain level thus reducing applicant pools; thus many schools are looking at ways of reducing their published price to all students or at least to subsets of students that they most want to attract. Dr. Lapovsky works with schools to help them understand their data and to design pricing and discounting strategies that will be more transparent, improve their outcomes and that feel more consistent with their mission and values.

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Financial Equilibrium Considerations

Achieving and maintaining financial equilibrium is a challenge for all institutions. Dr. Lapovsky brings a strategic understanding of higher education finance and the knowledge of a wide range of ways to increase revenue and contain cost to help institutions analyze their current situation and identify areas where changes can be made without sacrificing quality. This can include consideration of mergers and acquisitions, addition of new sources of revenue both from new program offerings as well as other mission related activities as well as cost saving measures from improving the effectiveness and efficiency of institutional operations.  Dr. Lapovsky in knows for working collegially with faculty and staff to motivate them to think outside the box and to understand the value from changes in the way things can be done. 

Dr. Lapovsky often speaks with boards on challenging financial issues to update them on the current state of higher education finances. She often is asked to work with the board on assessing the strategies available to the institution as it looks to the future. She likes to tackle challenging problems and to work collaboratively with the institution to solve them. She also has worked with law firms as an expert witness on higher education which involve finance issues.

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Clients include: Illinois Wesleyan University, Loyola University of New Orleans, One8 Foundation, Nomura Securities, The Endeavor Foundation, Adler University, and  Kirkland and Ellis among other clients.