SAGE’s Tuition Rewards Program Reaches 181 Colleges; 82,000 Families

SAGE Scholars, America's largest private college savings program with over 82,000 sponsored students, is changing the way families, colleges and savings companies approach college savings.

(PRWEB) February 21, 2006 -- Mark Forsyth, Senior Vice President at SAGE Scholars, the nation’s first savings plan exclusively devoted to private colleges and universities, today announced that its Tuition Rewards™ Plan has exceeded 82,000 enrolled students and has signed its 181st college. “We believe that reaching those milestones verifies our concept – that families can be encouraged to plan and save for their children’s, or grandchildren’s, college education,” Forsyth stated.

Steve Logan, SAGE’s Chief Technology Officer, looks at the success as a natural outgrowth of the expanded content and simplification of SAGE’s web-based enrollment system. “We have had nearly 100 people simultaneously logged onto our site,” said Logan. “They are not only enrolling but also utilizing our unique linked content.”

Tuition Rewards brings together three separate groups: families, colleges, and financial institutions. Families enroll in the plan and receive guaranteed scholarships of up to one full year’s tuition. The Tuition Rewards, which are actually discounts off tuition and not “hard” dollars, are provided by each of the 181 participating private colleges and represent the minimum scholarship that sponsored students will receive if and when they attend a member school. Unlike other college savings plans, Tuition Rewards participants can invest in a wide variety of financial vehicles, including mutual funds, CDs, money markets and annuities. The average participant has identified four times more assets than are typically accumulated in state-sponsored 529 Plans.

In return for providing the SAGE Tuition Rewards that guarantees each student will receive a discount equal to his or her Tuition Reward (maximum scholarship is one year’s tuition), participating colleges are given basic educational/demographic information about enrolled participants in grades 9 – 12. Students and colleges are urged to begin a dialogue to determine a possible “fit” between the two. Explaining the process, Forsyth stated, “By creating an information flow between colleges and high school students, we hope to broaden families’ educational opportunities and to help make a quality private education affordable.”

The most recent institution to join the Tuition Rewards consortium is Springfield College in Springfield Massachusetts. “We’re very excited to have Springfield College in the Tuition Rewards Program” stated Forsyth. “Springfield is an excellent institution and will attract more attention to Tuition Rewards in the New England region.” Springfield College was recently ranked among US News & World Reports list of “Best Master’s Schools – North East.”

More about SAGE Scholars: SAGE was founded in 1996 by Dr. James Johnston, the former head of admissions and financial aid at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. SAGE’s Tuition Rewards Program is now the largest private college savings program in America, based on the number of participating students. SAGE’s list of financial partners through which families can earn Tuition Rewards includes Asset Marketing Systems, B.C. Ziegler, Horace Mann, Pennsylvania’s TAP 529 Plan, and the Monetta Family of Mutual Funds, among others.

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