Here is a link to a great article in the New York Times, showing that most people pay a lot less than the sticker price for college at the nation’s academically elite colleges. There are great charts showing representations of the amount paid by poor, low-middle class, middle class, upper-middle class, affluent, and very affluent families, based on the national distribution. Note that the designation of “affluent” requires an income of $186,000… and the affluent and very affluent are the only groups that pay the huge sticker price for private colleges!
True that…but with acceptance rates hovering in the 10% range…these should not be considered a slam dunk for admissions by anyone.
The generous need based aid does you no good…unless you are in the 10% or less who are accepted.
Yup, the key here is “academically elite college.” If less than 10% of those who apply are accepted - and if the vast majority of students are not applying to those colleges in the first place - it is a very, very small number of people included in the “most people” who pay a lot less than sticker price.
We almost didn’t look at the school my daughter ended up attending because of the price. I think the year she started looking it was $46k. By the time she graduated it was $58k. I remember telling her that we could look at it but it was probably out of reach. Then we looked at the merit award, the state BF, the state resident grant and it started to come into focus. She has 9 line items of financial aid. Any one wasn’t going to get the price within reach, but 9? Honestly the thing that put us over was the athletic aid, but if she hadn’t received that she probably would have qualified for some need based aid from the school. Courtney Thornton attends a similar school and she balances more than one scholarship to make it work.
It’s not an academically elite school, and I think they have to work twice as hard to get good students. This is especially true in Florida as now BF covers tuition in public schools, which is a deal, IMO, too good to pass up (that wasn’t the deal when my daughter started or I don’t think she’d have gone to the private school).
I agree with @TheGreyKing that schools shouldn’t automatically be dismissed because of the sticker price, but know what you can afford and when to walk away.
Over 50% of students at top schools pay sticker price. (Which is 65k+). Be afraid, be very afraid
@suzyQ7 But most of the full pay parents at those schools can afford it. Despite efforts to achieve socioeconomic diversity at those schools, they still have a disproportionate number of affluent students.
This is a feel good story to get more applicants and reject more to show a lower acceptance rate, average COA and average aid are useless hypotheticals if you have decent income and didn’t collect debt. They expect you to pay upto 40% of your annual income on one kid’s education. If a kid can’t make parents to pony up the money, he is asked to take a hike, no matter how hard he worked or how suitable he is for their community. No bank gives such big loans to teenagers with a high school diploma.
It’s stories like this one in the NY Times that makes a lot of people think they’ll get full-rides or pay just pennies at many universities. We get so many students here with modest stats asking about OOS universities with full rides and not understanding the full implication of financial aid. And the feel good stories about the URM who got into all Ivies with a full ride just cranks up the expectations for kids who then turn up their noses at their state flagship and other public universities. I am actually seeing this with some of the kids I work with in the local youth organizations. None of this is helpful for the large number of students who need realistic, affordable college options.
Elsewhere, there was a story about how NY Times has many Ivy league grads in its staff. Well, their bias is showing.
@momprof9904
The education of the article’s writer “Born in New York in 1973, Mr. Leonhardt studied applied mathematics at Yale. He is a third-generation native of New York.” Not surprising.
I want to read stories about why tuition at Oxbridges is a lot cheaper than many American universities, elite or not and how the Brits achieved that.
On the opposite side of the coin, class inequalities are perpetuated when extremely talented and brilliant students from low income backgrounds do not apply to top schools because they do not realize how great the financial aid is. There have been other articles about how attending an elite college makes more of a difference for poor and minority students in terms of social mobility than does their attending a non-elite college and than it makes for wealthier kids to attend an elite college. Low income and minority students benefit the most from attending elite colleges.
It is true that not every student can get into a top college. But it is also true that, for those who can, it can make a big difference in the lives of bright students of lesser financial means, and that some families may not encourage their kids to apply to these colleges, and these families need to hear how great the financial support can be.
And it is not only the tippy-tops that are now devoting money to bringing low income students onto their campus; lots of colleges are making this effort now.
They don’t have climbing walls
(or title IX, requirements to provide counseling, to make accommodations for disabilities, new buildings, endless reporting to the government…)
Oxbridges is a lot cheaper<<<<<<<<<
If you can get into Oxbridge, you will get into a full needs met US school anyway. If money is your only hook, neither will be available.Self selection is much more realistic in the UK.
No question that bright kids from low income families need to be encouraged to apply to more top schools. That message needs to get out. I’m not sure this article really made that point well.
@TheGreyKing
I don’t know whether CC allows me to post this link, https://www.thisamericanlife.org/550/three-miles
If not, you could search “three miles” and “this American life”, it is an old episode from 2015.
It is great that elite colleges are “making their door ajar” for brilliant kids from low income background, unfortunately the problems these kids face could not be solved by generous financial aids alone.
Ok, then compare our sticker price with any universities in the UK then @Sybylla
@makemesmart - Thank you for sharing that. I read the transcript. It is very moving, and proof that KEEPING a kid in college is as important as getting them there.
I know that a lot of colleges are starting to make their on-going support stronger (Williams certainly is trying) and also that they realize there is a lot more that they need to do.
Sometimes college administrators, and fellow classmates, don’t understand the challenges that poor students face.
Also, sometimes poor students don’t know all the resources and support that are there for them if they reach out for it. There was a thread on CC somewhere by a person of color from a low income background who spoke about learning that his friends from middle class and upper class backgrounds were going to office hours and getting tutoring— options he had not realized were so widely used by students. He said things got better and he was very successful once he learned not to be afraid of asking for help. Colleges need to do a better job of showing students the available support systems before a kid needs them.
That said, the top private non-profit colleges have graduation rates exceeding 90%. The worst graduation rates, the worst debt, etc. come out of for-profit colleges. Top colleges care about their graduation rates and are invested in students’ success, even if college staff are sometimes ignorant or clumsy about the support they need to provide.
Don’t look at the COA as what you will pay, unless you don’t qualify for any merit or need based aid.
We looked at several private colleges in PA like Susquehanna, Muhlenberg, Juniata, Lycoming, etc and the net price calculator on the college’s website indicated enough need based grants and/or merit for my S’s stats and our income and assets, to bring the net price down to instate public price range.
I’m not sure why others think the article is misleading or unhelpful. The title states, "Top Colleges are Cheaper than you Think (Unless you are rich) which the data clearly supports. I don’t think the article claims to make another point other than that.
I have two kids who attend highly selective colleges and it is affirming to see that we pay pretty much what the data in the article indicate we should pay. In this sense, I found the article and data very useful.
The one thing that is misleading is the idea that a student could take out a small loan … unless it’s a school that meets need without loans, the school is awarding max loans for year in school when meeting need. Not sure where the kid is supposed to get the loan. While this may seem a bit trivial, it isn’t … because it adds to incorrect belief by many that loans are not financial aid. They are, at least for the vast majority of schools.