“Cutting the Price Tag” at Calvin University Tackles “Sticker Shock”
You still hear complaints today that too many potential students don’t understand the fact that few students actually pay the high “sticker” price at most private sector colleges and universities. Alas, those same schools seldom address the “sticker price” challenge as directly as Calvin University.
“Cutting the Price Tag” is about as direct a page title as you can get.
Calvin has been using this approach since at least 2014, updating the specific numbers each year. In other words, the content you’ll see here is not driving away potential students. Topics covered in the easy-to-scan infographic include:
- The “big and daunting” $49,770 sticker price that “most families” don’t pay.
- Merit scholarships up to $22,000.
- Grants based on need up to $23,000.
- Student loans up to $5,500.
- Average loan debt of $29,532 after graduation.
- Employment levels that let almost everyone pay back their loans… the default rate is just 1.6% compared to 9.7% at “national colleges and universities.
Writing right for the Web…
Note how clearly the content is presented. Financial aid jargon is blessedly absent.
A next marketing step…
Visitors are asked to “Apply for admissions and financial aid to find out what YOUR actual cost will be.”
That’s fine for the verified price before enrolling. Before that, a next marketing step might well be adoption of the MyIntuition 6-step personal financial aid estimator as a logical step following the infographic.
Speed on mobile… rapid 1.7 seconds to first view
Google PageSpeed Insights measures the time to first view on a mobile phone at 1.7 seconds… faster than most. Time to full interactivity was 9.6 seconds.
The main change to make things even faster: “Defer offscreen images”… not one we’ve seen before.
Website Carbon Calculator… another “Hurrah!”
Thanks to Gerry McGovern and his efforts to reduce “world wide waste” for the referral.
“This web page is cleaner than 66% of web pages tested.”
See how your website helps or hurts the climate. Test your website pages at “Website Carbon Calculator.”
Follow the Link of the Week…
Calvin University offers potential students an easy-to-follow review of the cost of attending at “Cutting the Price Tag.”
Recommend a future Link of the Week
Always eager to get recommendations of websites that dare to be different… or just do something ordinary in a special way. Write a comment with link here or send me the link at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com.
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