What We Talk About When We Talk About Fifty Bucks

By Matt Reed. Students will pay extra for a sense of fairness. Until last year, we had a non-credit math review class that we offered students who didn’t like, or believe, their score on the math placement test. For fifty bucks, we offered them a couple of weeks of guided review and a chance to retake the test. From an institutional perspective, this was a screaming deal. Fifty bucks could get you out of one, and possibly two, semesters of remediation that you didn’t really need. The savings on tuition alone are substantial; when you add the savings of time, it’s a no-brainer. Read more...