<p>The actual costs of private schools is much less than the "sticker price".</p>
<p>I think it is a mistake to rule out a school from your application list in the fall for financial reasons. Pay the application fee and wait until you see their financial aid offer in April. Even then, you should speak with the financial aid office about improving your aid package and about the possibility of applying for an assistantship in the summer or fall that would further offset costs. Of course, you should apply to at least one financial safety.</p>
<p>Here is a list of private schools with their average net cost for families in the $75-$110 K income range. Net cost includes room and board. Some great schools are relatively inexpensive. The Amherst data might be an anomaly...not sure. Net cost plus discount should equal total cost of attendance "sticker price". Don't let the "sticker price" scare you away. The discount number consists of gift aid such as grants, not loans.</p>
<p>from IPEDS website</p>
<p>average net cost, average DISCOUNT, name of college</p>
<p>3256 53642 Amherst College
10521 47729 Yale University
14745 43809 Vanderbilt University
12364 43636 Harvard University
15887 43321 Columbia University in the City of New York
15101 42654 Stanford University
14052 42493 Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
17104 40761 Claremont McKenna College
18940 39698 Dartmouth College
18239 39473 Haverford College
17319 39221 Bowdoin College
19067 38074 Williams College
17497 37773 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
17665 37654 Pomona College
17937 37463 Colby College
20232 37343 Trinity College
21561 37110 Wesleyan University
20582 36778 University of Pennsylvania
19717 36433 Brown University
21728 35657 Vassar College
18465 35469 Princeton University
20439 35456 Swarthmore College
20534 35036 Colgate University
21956 35032 Pitzer College
19275 34815 California Institute of Technology
19765 34695 University of Richmond
22439 34686 Cornell University
21246 34011 University of Notre Dame
21367 33903 Hamilton College
23905 33420 Duke University
23704 33346 Middlebury College
23169 33331 Skidmore College
20226 33089 Macalester College
25045 33080 Georgetown University
22607 33073 Kenyon College
22023 32820 Washington and Lee University
10689 32729 Sewanee-The University of the South
23863 32497 Dickinson College
23306 32408 Bryn Mawr College
27611 32339 University of Chicago
26676 32153 Northwestern University
20450 32048 Davidson College
24696 32004 Scripps College
25598 31670 Oberlin College
26448 31520 Harvey Mudd College
21680 31416 Furman University
24448 31272 Lafayette College
24312 31168 Hampshire College
26141 31007 George Washington University
27336 31007 Occidental College
28134 30767 Washington University in St Louis
27406 30672 Barnard College
24833 30537 St John's College
23583 30437 Lehigh University
25925 30415 Carleton College
23513 30277 Gettysburg College
26677 30083 University of Rochester
27392 30050 Johns Hopkins University
27316 29412 Boston College
25958 29342 Wellesley College
22566 29278 Grinnell College
27813 28787 Tufts University
21603 28727 Yeshiva University
29126 28720 Stevens Institute of Technology
27110 28590 Reed College
19473 28431 Hendrix College
28219 28265 Tulane University of Louisiana
26851 28249 Rollins College
25799 28191 The King</p>
<p>Ha. I’ve already had my coffee. The second column is the DISCOUNT, not COA. Yes, discounts can exceed net costs. The IPEDS data is a little behind. It might be from 2011 or 2010. Should not have changed much. But I do wonder about the Amherst figures.</p>
<p>This applies to incomes of $75-110K, but how do these numbers account for assets? Families at that income level can have little or lots of assets.</p>
<p>Actually, since colleges now have net price calculators, you can more easily tell if a school is worth applying to from a cost standpoint. The net price calculator can tell you if the school is likely to offer an affordable net price based purely on need-based aid. If it is not affordable on need-based aid, then you need to check if there are any in-reach large-enough merit scholarships that you can aim for (but remember that you are then aiming for the scholarships, not just admission); if there are not any, then the school can be crossed off the application list.</p>
<p>The actual costs of private schools is much less than the “sticker price”.</p>
<p>This should say…for some people. My sister pays full freight for TWO kids at the same time at pricey privates. No discounts for either child. </p>
<p>Their income is around $200k, but they have substantial savings/investments. </p>
<p>The Amherst numbers seem wrong. </p>
<p>That said, someone with an income of $75k-110k with modest assets, isn’t likely going to be able to pay the $25k-30k net cost at many of those listed schools.</p>
<p>Its a fair point and gives an indicator of which schools tend to be generous with financial aid but I suspect you were using the old calculator which does not take assets into account which would increase these numbers. The Amherst number does stand out as an anomaly but maybe they have some deal where anyone under a certain income can attend for free if they can get in. I think Harvard is that way but for a lower income bracket.</p>
<p>But don’t assume that the average tuition discount at these places is going to apply to you, either. I’ve seen students come on CC and express real shock that they didn’t get a discount, because they assumed that everyone gets one. “No one pays sticker price” is not true.</p>
I take exception to the thread title. Financial reasons are possibly the BEST reason to rule out a school. Maybe it should have been titled “don’t rule out a school until you KNOW the finances”</p>
<p>The data presented in the first post were from the US Dept of Education as reported to them by the universities in 2010 according to US DOE guidelines, definitions, and procedures.</p>
<p>The net cost is the average net cost that families with $75-$110 K income actually paid so it does take assets into account.</p>
<p>Is the net cost calculator different from an EFC calculator? How accurate are they? Anybody who was admitted in the past care to comment on the accuracy of those calculators? Might be a good question in the financial aid forum.</p>
<p>My point is that you won’t REALLY know the finances until April.</p>
<p>By the way, the total in-state cost for SUNY is about $18-$20 K which is not much different from the net cost at many of these private universities.</p>
<p>It would be a shame to eliminate these schools prematurely. Many families don’t know how financial aid works at private schools.</p>
<p>From your membership date, clearly you have been around a while, but I don’t recall seeing any posts from you in the Financial Aid forum recently. That would be a good place to start for an evaluation of the current crop of Net Price Calculators.</p>
<p>Some families have reported to-the-dollar predictions for aid. Others have reported wildly out-of-range predictions. Clearly they vary quite a bit from institution to institution. However, the general consensus is that the more detailed the NPC, the more accurate the results.</p>
<p>FAFSA EFC calculators are useful for identifying the type(s) and amount(s) of federal aid that a student will qualify for. They are not useful for predicting aid from a college or university unless that particular institution is committed to meeting the full need of applicants based on the FAFSA results alone. To my knowledege there is no such institution, however cptofthehouse and mom2collegekids might be able to correct me on that.</p>
<p>Yes, each student and his/her parents do indeed need to run the NPCs. They need to have long, hard conversations about where the money can come from (savings? current income? debt?) and who the money can come from (parents? kid? extended family?) so that everyone involved in the process can be on the same page. Without that conversation and that agreement, come April 1 there is every chance of bitter sorrow in that student’s home.</p>
<p>I would envision a discussion in the fall to the effect that we will apply to these schools without knowing exactly how much they might cost and we will discuss finances again in April…so don’t get your heart set on any one school. But, don’t peremptorily rule out schools.</p>
<p>By the way, the net cost for Amherst in the 2009-2010 school year for families with incomes $75-$110 K was $14,674. That $3,256 from 2010-2011 is clearly out of whack.</p>