But this is only a survey of 1000 students and parents.
The survey: https://www.salliemae.com/about/leading-research/how-america-pays-for-college/
But the school and government “financial aid” is likely referring to loans, which is essentially a family/student “expense”.
The CNBC article shows how the $26,226 is paid for on average, and loans is specifically included in the total. Student loans and parent loans are listed separately.
To me these numbers seem about right, or at least not surprising.
Here on CC we hears a lot about expensive private schools. However, a large number of students attend universities that are affordable, which frequently includes in-state public schools. I can’t tell from these two linked articles whether these numbers include community college, but if it does this would pull the averages down quite a bit.
I would think that these numbers would vary enormously among different students. As such, a larger sample would seem like a good idea if anyone wants the sample to be meaningful.
I think that this is good news. It suggests that the majority of Americans are NOT paying the huge costs of private universities in the US.
I think knowing the OOP (including loans) is a good number to compare, but the total FA, when tuition can range from $4k to $50k+ is kind of meaningless. In my family, one kid had an OOP cost of about $4k per year because of big FA/scholarships and the other kid had an OOP of about $8k; the COA at the second school was less than half of the first school. To us, it was still $4k and $8k OOP.
So the breakdown of the $26,226 is:
$3,746 student borrowing
$2,585 parent borrowing
$7,801 parent income and savings
$3,502 student income and savings
$0,417 relatives and friends
$8,177 grants and scholarships
Average net price is $18,049 after subtracting $8,177 average grants and scholarships from the presumed average list price of $26,226. Of the average net price, an average of $6,331 is borrowed, with an average of $11,720 from parent and student income and savings and relatives and friends.
The numbers are believable, because remember that a large percentage of college students commute to attend a community college or regional in-state public university whose list price is relatively low. It is not like the majority of college students are from top 3% income/wealth families attending $75k/year private universities and LACs.
Most people in this country are NOT going to expensive private colleges…
These figures are entirely believable.
According to NCES, about 17 million undergraduates attend U.S. colleges and universities. Of these, 82% of are enrolled in public institutions, which generally have a much lower COA than private non-profit institutions. Only about 2 million attend private non-profit institutions, and another million or so are enrolled in private for-profit schools. Some for-profits are expensive, but others are quite inexpensive, especially those based primarily or entirely on online learning. The 17 million figure also includes about 6 million attending two-year institutions, mostly commuter-oriented public community colleges with relatively low tuition and fees.
Once you account for scholarship and grant aid, it’s pretty clear that most students are paying less than the figure cited, in many cases much less. The average net cost is as high as it is mainly because some students elect to attend costly private schools or OOS publics and end up with a net cost above that mark, in some cases much higher. But attending an expensive private schools or OOS public is a choice, not a requirement and not a birthright. Anyone could choose to go to college and pay a net cost below the national average, and most do
The numbers look to be quite believable
I’d add that $26k annually is a lot of money for most American families, and cot cost prohibitive for many. So even though it is substantially less expensive than full pay at an Ivy… there is no “only” about it.
Note that $26k is the average list price. Average net price after grants and scholarships was $18k, of which an average of $6k was borrowed and an average of $12k was paid by means other than borrowing.
That $18k net price is still substantial compared to the typical income levels in the US, even though it looks small compared to typical income levels on these forums.
For many of the readers of cc, a self-selected population, “only” is certainly a reasonable word choice.
It is also the case that much of the “typical” (i.e. high income) forum population has the option of attending or sending kids to a $26k per year college, but would rather focus on trying get admitted to and finding scholarships to reduce the net price of $75k per year colleges.
I worked in an area where $26k was within the mid 50% income range . Very few kids went to sleep away colleges. Most went to community college part time.
Sure- and in THIS area (CC) there are many people who spend hundreds of dollars on shoes, concert/sporting events, and thousands on college counselors. Its all relative.
A net price of $18K for college is a little less than half the $37K average cost of a new light vehicle in the US, of which roughly 12 million are sold annually. Coincidentally, NCES data show that there are about 12 million full time students in colleges and universities.
$18K is not inordinately burdensome on the country as a whole in my opinion.
Good to know I’m finally considered higher than average 
However, only about a third of retail vehicle purchases are of new vehicles. Most retail buyers buy used vehicles that cost less. Also, one vehicle purchase typically lasts several years, in contrast to college spending that happens for four (or more) consecutive years.
But often families have multiple vehicles, so there may be a car lease or purchase, and additionally the cost of maintenance and repairs, and for many a loan repayment, on an ongoing basis.
Plus, a couple of states have made community college free or near free (including California this year). That might lower the average student/family expenditure for college a bit going forward…
I don’t get the point of what the “average” expenditure is and why we care about that. I’ve read several articles that rank various colleges and talk about the “average cost of attendance”. That’s terribly misleading. For some the cost is zero, others it’s $70k, or $10k all based on the college’s perception of what the student can pay.
I can understand the point of talking about “average” debt and why society might care about that, but even then I think that’s not especially helpful because it doesn’t show what the real burden of the debt is: $30k debt for a computer programmer is a lot different than $30k for a social worker, just as that same debt is different based on net cost of living in an area.