<p>Here's this year's list:</p>
<p>George Washington
University of Richmond
Sarah Lawrence
Kenyon College
Vassar
Bucknell
Bennington
Columbia U
Wesleyan U
Trinity College</p>
<p>Such lists can be deceptive because they are only based on tuition. The room and board can vary between schools also, so the total price must be considered, not just the tuition.</p>
<p>There are also other aspects of the cost of living that need to be considered.</p>
<p>For example, for many of the students at colleges located in major cities (such as George Washington and Columbia, but also many others not on this list), part of the attraction of the college is the city in which it is located, and all the cultural and entertainment opportunities that the city offers. But taking advantage of those opportunities costs money. A student with little money to spend on entertainment might feel out of place.</p>
<p>Another factor to consider when thinking about room and board is whether the student is likely to live on campus for all four years. At some colleges, most upperclassmen live off campus, and the cost of off-campus housing may be quite different from the cost of living in a dorm.</p>
<p>I agree with you, Marian. My D2 is at NYU and her tuition this year is close to that top ten, $34,794. That does not include the many ancillary fees, housing and other expenses, or costs for transportation, spending money, or personal expenses. Living in NYC is going to cost kids a lot more than living in Lewisburg, Pa. This, however, is not a time when you <em>want</em> to be in the top ten!</p>
<p>And then, there is my D3 who is the University of Toronto, which costs us $15,000 tops, in Canadian dollars, for everything, and who is getting every bit as great an education. Something is wrong with this picture.</p>
<p>Uh oh. My son is going to have to transfer. He isn't costing us as much as he could be! :)</p>
<p>I did a quick comparison between the COA at Kenyon and Sarah Lawrence (excluding costs of books and other incidentals). SLC comes out at over $46k and Kenyon at $42k.</p>
<p>Marketing, marketing, marketing. Some of those schools only set their list price so high because they are trying to convince parents that they are part of an elite echelon of colleges. </p>
<p>More broadly, something like a majority of families do NOT pay list price out of pocket for college, so people shopping have to look at what discounts ("financial aid") will be offered by each college.</p>
<p>ND and Vandy are both over 44k</p>
<p>Can't believe the prices are so low! I'm sure they can get more from full-freight customers than that!</p>
<p>Well, Mini, maybe not. This former full-pay customer fell off the edge and got a good chunk of aid this year. Full pay does not necessarily mean the numbers you assume it does. They can raise their prices all they want; our EFC ain't goin' any higher.</p>
<p>They are trying, mini. If I were a school, I too would try to maximize my returns for the lean years to come. And the lean years will be coming sooner than later because I do want my SS and medicare.</p>
<p>I just want to note that George Washington U. has a policy that fixes the tuition at the level students enter with -- so the $37K it is charging applies only to entering students. This year's seniors are paying around $34K. Not cheap, but not within the top 10 either. So while the school is still expensive, when costs are averaged over 4 years it may end up being less expensive that a school that raises tuition annually.</p>
<p>
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Some of those schools only set their list price so high because they are trying to convince parents that they are part of an elite echelon of colleges.
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</p>
<p>A couple of years ago Kenyon, I think, was ranked #1 in cost. As the parent of a Kenyon student I am devastated that the school has dropped to #4. </p>
<p>I am being facetious. I don't think high tuition had any (positive) influence in my daughter's or our evaluation of Kenyon as a school. And give us credit for being smart enough to look at the total cost of attending the schools my daughter investigated. In that case Kenyon has never been in the "elite" ranks. I have no idea why they choose to charge high tuition and then much lower charges for all the other costs of attending a college. At their end it may go into different pots, but at our end it still comes out of just one. </p>
<p>Unlike schools in major metropolitan areas, there are almost no options for off campus housing in Gambier, so it is very easy to figure out the total cost of a year there. It is still not a bargain but a more realistic list of the total list price of attending a college might not include Kenyon in the top 50. I think the ranking is of limited use.</p>
<p>
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And give us credit for being smart enough to look at the total cost of attending the schools my daughter investigated.
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</p>
<p>I will give you that credit, along with my thanks for your reply. What I'm decrying, in my first reply, is not your careful shopping process in considering various schools both as to value and as to cost for your child, but CNN's sloppy reporting process in listing schools by tuition list price. As you rightly say, there are several other elements to the cost of college, which all come out of a parent's pocket, and there are a variety of considerations of "fit" and location that may make one college more valuable for a particular student than another. In other words, I agree with you that "the ranking is of limited use," but I appreciate the OP sharing it so that we can all discuss these issues.</p>
<p>In my view, when comparing costs of colleges, I'd pare it to these three basic things: tuition, room, board (on campus). The list provided here, being just tuition, is misleading when it comes to most expensive colleges. I opened the thread, thinking for sure I'd see at least one of my kids' schools on it, if not both. One goes to NYU and one goes to Brown. They are pretty expensive. NYU is higher than Brown. It is considered an expensieve university, even if not on that list that only measures cost of tuition. I'm not even talking about the cost of spending money in a city, but just the basics of tuition, room and board.</p>
<p>TIME, Economist(?), most recent issue on newstands Nov , has article on COA and the average discounted cost for popular schools.</p>
<p>Tuition has been rising approx 5% per year at private colleges. If GW fixes the rate for 4 years that is great, but usually the only way to get the rate fixed at the entering rate is what is called "tuition stablization programs." </p>
<p>They have one of these at Tufts. All we had to do was to come up with $135,624 to lock the tuition for 4 years ($16,953 per semester for 8 semesters)!!!! By pre-paying $135,624, we would save $5,344.37 (at 5%/yr) over a 4 year eduction. And by the way, you have to pay the entire amount even if you have scholarships, such as NMS or others that pay the school per semester. Those monies get applied to housing or fees. Anything in excess of housing and fees gets refunded........yeah, good luck!</p>
<p>At USC, they have a similar program but if you have merit aid, you CAN'T do the lock-in of tuition or anything else. Not sure where we would have gotten the $$$ to pre-pay 4 years of tuition anyway because they wouldn't discount it by his merit award.
Oh well, we're glad they gave merit aid to make S able to attend, since he's happy & thriving there (cynically for us, it would have been cheaper for us if they didn't offer a $ & thereby took themselves out of consideration).</p>
<p>GW guarantees the same tuition rate for all four years, without prepayment. The student and family don't have to do anything - it is locked in by the school.</p>
<p>But you have to have it to pay.</p>
<p>In an interview in these week's Williams Record, the college pres showed some real honesty as to why list prices outpace inflation:</p>
<p>'If we dont increase our tuition at the same growth rate as the top 5 percent of incomes, then were asking for a smaller percentage of [those earners] income."</p>
<p>Since more than 50% of students are full-freight payers, it makes awfully good sense to me (though they could get more...and will.)</p>