Sure, you'll haggle at a garage sale and bargain at the flea market, but who dickers with colleges over the price of tuition?

A few people, but many more should be, college advisors say, because schools are not turning away their advances.

``The way that the schools do it, they don't want to call it discounting,'' said Jerry Slavonia, creator of the college information website CampusExplorer.com. But a chat with an admissions counselor after a student has been accepted at a school can yield grants and scholarships that may not otherwise have been on the table.

``That's what their endowment is for,'' he said.

Slavonia's strategy -- aimed at nonprofit and for-profit universities, not public colleges -- is for students to start by applying to the schools you had already planned to. The primary reasons for picking a school shouldn't change: You want the right fit of programs, culture and geography.

Once you've been admitted, compare costs at the schools you would most like to attend. (One place to find these figures ischronicle.com/article/TuitionFees-2009-10/48879/.)

If College A is your favorite, but College B has a lower tuition, Slavonia said, call the admissions counselor you've been assigned at College A.

Tell them that you are considering other schools but tuition is an issue. Ask if they can match the price of another school on your list.

With many schools desperate for students, you may be pleasantly surprised by their answers.

``When fewer students enroll, they don't have their No. 1 source of revenue,'' Slavonia said.

Another way to shave some of your college costs is to apply for financial aid, said Andy Lockwood, cofounder and owner of College Planning Specialists in Weston.

Some 53 percent of eligible families don't even apply, he said. Many are members of what he calls the ``forgotten middle class,'' people who think they make too much to qualify for financial help.

While some of the offers a college might supply could include loans, they may also offer scholarships and grant money that doesn't have to be repaid, he said.

And while many public universities are inexpensive compared to private schools, it could take longer to graduate from a large public school because of competition for a spot in key courses.

If you have to tack on extra years at a public school, the price tag might be comparable to four years of tuition at a more expensive private school, Lockwood said.

``Don't overlook these schools on cost alone,'' he said.

While financial aid forms aren't simple, and bargaining with a school can sound intimidating, Slavonia said these can be lessons of their own.

``One of the things we have to learn in life is to negotiate,'' he said. ``You might as well start from day one.''

College Planning Specialists offers free hour-long workshops with tips on how to navigate college financial aid systems and other advice. The schedule is at www.learncollegefunding.com.