PLAYING THE COLLEGE GAME By RUTH SIMON As recent graduates struggle with high college costs and a weak

job market, scho ols are using sophisticated tactics to attract new students. That's making the process of picking a college even more bewildering for familie s at all income levels. In the past few years, more colleges have turned to outside consulting firms to help them tinker with their prices and merit awards, or are adding staff to do t his, experts say. Schools are "ratcheting up their top line and ratcheting up th eir discount rate," says Jack Maguire, founder of Maguire Associates, one of abo ut a dozen firms that have sprung up to counsel colleges on pricing and enrollme nt strategies. The result for many families is confusion, with different schools presenting dif ferent sets of numbers that can muddy the decision-making process. Navigating the College-Selection Process View Interactive Guy Stauber The good news is that there are strategies to help families become smarter consu mers, from estimating costs at the beginning of the college search and focusing squarely on "net price" to recognizing red flags in aid awards and appealing whe n awards are inadequate. Such moves won't get your kid into the school of his or her dreams at a bargain price. But they can help you get the most out of the process. Getting Past Sticker Shock The average sticker price of tuition and fees at private nonprofit colleges has jumped 13% since the 2007-08 academic year, even after accounting for inflation, and by 27% at public four-year schools, according to the College Board. But dive deeper and a surprising trend emerges. Many schools, eager to boost the ir standing in college rankings or build a more diverse student body, have been ramping up their merit aid to promising applicants. So while sticker prices cont inue to climb, the average net price, or the amount students actually pay, at pu blic schools has increased by a more moderate 18% since 2007-08 and has fallen by 4% at private nonprofit schools. Related Think Twice Before Co-Signing New Rage: Loan-Payoff Parties Video: Student Debt Nears One Trillion Dollars All told, almost 86% of first-time, full-time freshmen at private nonprofit coll eges and universities received some type of grant in 2011, according to the Nati onal Association of College and University Business Officers, compared with less than 82% in 2005. Some schools are even cutting their sticker prices. In 2012-13, at least 32 priv ate colleges and universities have frozen or reduced tuition, according to the N ational Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. The Second Choice Is OK To be sure, not everyone receives merit or need-based aid and for them, rising sti

cker prices are a growing concern. "Very few families, even those that have save d specifically for college, have enough money to really make a huge dent in the cost," says Chuck Drawbaugh, president of College Funding Associates in Rumson, N.J. On the other hand, even those families can console themselves with research show ing "no impact on satisfaction" for students who don't attend their first-choice schools, says John Pryor, director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Pr ogram at the University of California, Los Angeles, which surveys more than 200, 000 students across the country annually. Sara Douglas, a college freshman, chose the University of Tulsa, which offered g enerous merit aid, over both a pricier school and one that promised her a free r ide but didn't have a computer-science program. "I would have been settling for studying biology instead of double-majoring in b iology and computer science," she says. The Oklahoma school was a "good, rigorou s university, the size was correct, and it also had exactly what I wanted to stu dy," she says. Given the high price of a college education, families should start saving as ear ly as possible by, for example, making regular contributions to a tax-advantaged 529 college-savings plan starting in elementary school or earlier. But if you haven't saved enough, or if your child is a high-school senior or soo n will begin the application process, the following steps can help keep costs ma nageable. Set your price parameters early. The college-selection process should start befo re applications are sent, with a frank assessment of what you can afford. "If there is no way the financials are going to work, why have the student go th rough the exercise of having to apply?" asks Deborah Fox, a San Diego financial planner and founder of Fox College Funding. Ms. Fox starts by estimating the total cost of college over four years for her c lients, assuming a 6% annual increase. Once you have a ballpark figure, you can use the College Board's Expected Family Contribution calculator at bigfuture.col legeboard.org/pay-for-college/paying-your-share/expected-family-contribution-cal culator to get a rough sense of what you might be expected to pay. Focus on net price. The difference between sticker price and net price is wideni ng (please see chart on page B7). Most college websites now include a "net price calculator" to help you compute the average cost for families like yours even b efore submitting an application. Keep in mind that the calculators provide only rough estimates. "I wouldn't bet the rent on their accuracy," says Kalman Chany, president of Campus Consultants in New York. He says he has seen calculators overestimate or underestimate grant aid by $10,000 or more per year. Calculators that ask detailed questions about family finances and the student's academic record tend to be more accurate than those that rely on a few pieces of data. Some calculators ask as few as eight questions, while others seek more th an 70, according to a recent study by the Institute for College Access and Succe ss, or Ticas. Pay closest attention to the figure marked "estimated net price," because some c alculators make the "final" or "out of pocket" cost appear lower by factoring in $10,000 or more in student loans, warns Ticas President Lauren Asher.

Consider a school's success rate. Instead of focusing only on acceptance rates, use the U.S. Department of Education's College Navigator (nces.ed.gov/collegenav igator) to see how many students graduate in four, six or eight years and the st udent-loan default rate. Also ask the admissions office about job-placement rate s and where students who pursue advanced degrees go on to study. Use the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Financial-aid cutoffs might be higher than you think. At most private colleges, families with incomes of as mu ch as $180,000 might receive need-based grants, says Robert Weinerman, senior di rector of college finance at College Coach, a unit of Bright Horizons Family Ser vices. "If you have two in college, the number I use is $260,000." Besides being required for need-based aid, the Fafsa is also used for federal st udent loans and can be a factor in many merit scholarships. Be sure to apply for aid early. Some grants are handed out on a first-come, firs t served basis. Reapply in later years even if you don't get much aid at first, particularly if circumstances change or younger children enter college, reducing your expected financial contribution. Look for schools with generous merit aid. Consider institutions where your child 's grades and tests scores put him or her in the top 25% or 50% of the class. "Many schools have a progressive award structure," with the best packages going to the top students, says Brian Zucker, president of Human Capital Research, whi ch helps colleges set enrollment and pricing strategies. Even state schools offe r merit aid to lure bright students. College Navigator and the Institute for College Access and Success's website (co llege-insight.org) can help you determine how generous a school is with aid. An institution that woos your child with glossy brochures or meetings with professo rs might also be more generous, says Mr. Weinerman. Understand grants versus work-study. A big aid package can be flattering. But it might not be the best deal if the sticker price is high or the package consists mostly of loans and work-study rather than grants or scholarships. "There is a certain segment of the population whose interest in a school increas es more with the size of the scholarship, even at the point where they may be ma king an irrational economic decision," notes Scott Bodfish, vice president for m arket research at Noel-Levitz, an enrollment-management consultant. To avoid that trap, subtract grants and scholarships, which don't need to be rep aid, from total cost to come up with the net price. More than 550 schools have voluntarily adopted the Department of Education's "Fi nancial Aid Shopping Sheet," which makes comparisons easier. Make sure the aid keeps coming. About 50% of colleges and universities front-loa d grants, meaning freshmen receive more of their aid in the form of grants than seniors do, says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, a financial-aid resou rce site. One reason is that the amount a student can borrow using federal loans is lower for freshmen than for upperclassmen, notes Justin Draeger, president of the Nati onal Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. "Students and parents should be very comfortable asking whether they should expect the same level of g rant or scholarship support going forward," he says.

Also ask what happens to your award if the sticker price rises or you receive ou tside scholarships. Many schools try to increase institutional aid proportionate ly as costs rise, says Mr. Draeger, but might be limited by the size of their en dowment or other factors. Colleges typically reduce your financial-aid package proportionately if you win an outside scholarship, but can do it by cutting loans, grants or both. Consider an appeal. If your financial-aid package is inadequate, "most schools a re open to an appeal," says Dean Skarlis, president of the College Advisor of Ne w York. But the process isn't a negotiation, he cautions. "You have to find some leverage." One option is to show that the offer didn't account for special financial circum stances, such as supporting an elderly parent in a nursing home or a young child with special needs, or for steep medical bills or unusually large commuting exp enses, says Myra Smith, executive director of financial-aid services at the Coll ege Board. A better offer from a competing school can also help. Mr. Pryor says Worcester P olytechnic Institute in Massachusetts sweetened the financial-aid offer for his son, now a freshman, after he told the school it was his son's first choice but the family had a richer offer from another institution. Keep borrowing in check. If you don't get a rich merit offer, consider cheaper o ptions before piling on debt. As a rule of thumb, total student debt at graduati on including any parent loans the student is expected to repay shouldn't exceed the student's annual starting salary after graduation, says Mr. Kantrowitz. Parents, meanwhile, shouldn't take on more debt for all of their children than they can afford to repay within 10 years or by retirement, whichever comes first, he adds. (See "Think Twice Before Co-Signing" for a look at the risks of co-signing student loans.) Save the pricier school for later. One option is to splurge on graduate school. Bonnie Kerrigan Snyder, a college consultant in Lancaster, Pa., is following thi s path. She says her daughter, who wants to pursue a graduate degree in environm ental science, is in her second year at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S .C., which gave her a generous merit aid award. "She is going to graduate school, and that's where we will save the big bucks," Ms. Snyder says. Write to Ruth Simon at ruth.simon@wsj.com