Confusing College Aid
What it will cost you to go to college is a complicated subject, depending not just on tuition, but where you will live, where and what you will eat, various fees (these provide for things like laboratory use, funding the student government, and parking), and of course books. You can reasonably estimate the costs for these, and there are tools available on college websites to help with that estimation.
What is more difficult is to factor in is the difference between the list price (total of all those above) and the net price, which is the above minus any aid. And aid can be from the college directly in the shape of grants, work-study money, or in loans from the federal government (most likely) and/or private loans (less likely).
The tricky part is that aid from the college varies incredibly for each individual. It might even change for that one student from year to year. Applicants usually don’t know how much aid they will receive until a while after they are accepted. It’s not a good system. On the one hand you might get what people call a “full ride,” which is all expenses are paid by the college in the form of grants that do not need to be repaid. Or you might get partial aid (most people get some sort of discount on tuition in the form of scholarships). Finally, very few students get no aid.
In a recent study by Strada, 68% of college students (and parents of college students) found that the financial aid process was either very confusing or somewhat confusing. In fact, in some other studies (see my blog post on this) parents and applicants have been shown to be unaware that widespread discounting of tuition exists and are dismissing colleges based on this misperception that they would need to pay full price.
In the Strada study they found that the number one solution that parents and applicants think would make college more affordable was cost transparency. The report also found that all this price confusion leads to families trusting colleges less.
People still believe (as do I) that a college education is worth it. But the process needs to be more transparent and seen as fair.
In the meantime, the best advice I can give is to be aware of all this. Know that college pricing is not a hard number. Don’t discount a school based on sticker price. There are tools available on college websites to help you estimate what you might pay (mostly based on family income). Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
