College Cost

<p>I'm trying to get some sense of how much will I be paying for graduating from a college. I know there is a big range and it all depends upon the college you are going to, EFC, FA etc etc. </p>

<p>Still, for a decent private college, how much you will be paying?</p>

<p>Tution
Typical FA/Scholarship average student gets. </p>

<p>Some of the colleges I have looked at their sticker price is $50 -60 K per year. Let's say if the college costs $60K, after getting scholarship etc how much will be out of pocket expenses. Just trying to get some approximate numbers.</p>

<p>Your best bet is to use some of the net price calculators on various school websites.</p>

<p>There are too many personal variables for anyone to give you an answer. Some people will pay the full sticker price, others may pay almost nothing at the same school.</p>

<p>There is just such a huge range, it’s impossible to answer.</p>

<p>If it’s a school that covers 100% of EFC and parents have low income and assets, they could pay close to zero. Keep in mind, though, that these schools are harder to get into than others, some quite hard.</p>

<p>The same school would cost full fare for a student with parents with high income and assets.</p>

<p>And schools that don’t meet full need sometimes provide merit aid to some students, but others have little merit money.</p>

<p>So what’s the students’ academic profile and parents’ financial situation? That should influence where the student applies and how much the student might receive.</p>

<p>There is no answer to this question. We don’t know your family situation, we don’t know your stats, and we don’t know what kind of schools you’ll be applying to.</p>

<p>You could be low income and apply to a pricey OOS school, but only get a tiny bit of aid.</p>

<p>The most expensive private colleges are charging close to $65K these days, some even over when you take their official COAs. For those schools in this category that guarantee to meet full need, it will depend entirely on what your family income and assets are, as to what the bottom line figure will be. FOr those schools that have merit money to offer, it will depend upon your test scores, how much a school wants you and the awards the schools have, as to what you end up paying. I know about 30 kids all planning to go to a certain $60K+ school in the area, and what they will be paying ranges from just about nothing to the full cost. That is how much it varies. A quick average of the group gives me a price of about $35K. But that includes those kids commuting and getting full tuition paid through financial aid, and those who are living at the school and paying the full sticker price. Most of them seem to be getting some sort of merit award of financial aid package, but how much in loans, work study vs grants, is hard to discern. And that is with inside infor on a particular situation in real time. </p>

<p>None of this info helps YOU however. It just says you could be going for virtually free to being expected to pay more than $60K a year depending on your family circumstances and your stats. This school is also unusual in that it is very heavy on merit money, so some of the kids are going for less than what the fin aid calculators would make them pay. So you can be any one of those 30 students, but which one would you be, the one who is offered admissions at full cost, one given a full or partial fin aid package, one given full or partial merit money or a combo of fin aid and merit?</p>