(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Do you have sticker shock over the potential cost of college for your child? A financial advisor says there are no guarantees but it can’t hurt to try to negotiate.
Marc Horner, wealth advisor at Fairhaven Wealth Management in Wheaton, was a guest Wednesday on the Noon Business Hour as the program continued its “Education Week” series of features.
“It’s not going to work every time,” Horner said of dickering over costs with a university. “But it is a no-downside proposition, as long as you can stomach hearing the word ‘no.’”
First, he said, don’t fall over yourself telling the school how much your kid wants to attend.
The idea of negotiating should start as soon as parents are putting together a list of colleges of universities. Once their child is accepted, he or she has some potential leverage.
“That’s when the tables have really turned,” Horner says.
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Another strategy is to determine whether a prospective student is part of a demographic niche a university is looking to fill, he said.
“There are all sorts of different levers that schools are trying to push,” Horner said. “One of our clients just got their tuition offer reduced by $6,000, and the feedback that they got was, ‘We’re actually a little short on male applicants.’ So, actually being a male applicant was an advantage for him.”
Keep in mind, Horner said, colleges and universities are competitive with each other as they try to raise their respective “yield” rates – the actual number of students who are accepted who then go on to attend the institution.
“There is no downside. ‘No’ is as bad as it’s going to get,” he says of negotiating.
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