I’m just curious. The sticker price at most of the private colleges we have looked at are similar – all about 60+K including room and board. But it seems that between FA and merit, very few people are actually paying these prices. Is it possible to find out the number of students who are actually full pay at various different colleges?
Well, you could work backward from FinAid statistics in CDS and on College Navigator.
At schools with little to no merit aid, usually the majority are paying sticker.
Thanks @alooknac. If I’m reading it right 42% of students at NYU are paying full sticker price? Wow.
If I’m reading this right, there are a LOT of rich kids at Skidmore!
You’ll find this interesting if you haven’t seen it yet.
@doschicos Damn you pay wall!
Try using another browser if you’ve used your monthly free allotment. 
The Common Data Set should make it pretty easy to figure out.
@gallentjill
Yes you are reading it right. And do not forget that the percentage of people that receive need based fin aid also includes students that received VERY small amounts and they are essentially full pay. I am not sure but I think a student that only receives a work study award is also considered in the percentage of students that received aid.
@am9799 I’m looking at College Navigator. For Skidmore, it states that 35% of the incoming freshmen class received some form of grant or scholarship aid. From that, I assume that 65% of the students are full pay. Thats a lot of kids paying 67K per year.
At Wellesley, with no merit aid available, about 40% pay full sticker price.
How to find this for a particular college:
On Big Future, look up the college. Click on “Paying,” then “Financial aid by the numbers”
You will find the higher the rank, the higher the percentage of full pays.
Examples: Yale - 53% of students applied for aid, which means 47% are full pay, no questions asked.
93% of that 53% were found to have need, so another 3 percent or so didn’t get aid, so 50% paying fulll price
Lower on the rankings - Grinnell - 72% of students applied for aid, so 28% of students full pay, no questions asked.
@gallentjill
From the latest Common data set:
Number of degree-seeking undergraduate students 661
Number of students who applied for need based financial aid 337
Number of students who were determined to have financial need 272
Number of students who were awarded any financial aid 272
So 272/661 =41% that received financial aid. This percentage though will include students that received very little so they are essentially full pay.
Not sure about merit aid in Skidmore.
@AroundHere Thanks! It seems that there is a tier just under the top where significant numbers of people pay full. Lafayette, Skidmore, Brandeis, New York University, etc. Then when you take a step further down, far fewer pay full.
You can find non-need based aid (merit) in section H2-A of the CDS. For Skidmore, it was 12 students who received an average of $13,250.
I believe the college navigator number includes both need based and merit based grants. Skidmore doesn’t give any significant merit aid.
And the implied assumption in the original post is why a lot of folks seem to end up this time of year saying “WAIT A MINUTE! YOU MEAN I’M EXPECTED TO PAY WHAT???” Many people seem to have absorbed this untrue “fact” that nobody actually pays that price. That a solid student will obviously get a big discount, even at a place like Harvard, which doesn’t give merit aid.
An equally untrue fact that is perpetuated here on CC is that top tudents can easily get competitive full-rides at lower ranked schools. There are a few schools with automatic full rides for NMF where that is true, but the idea that all top students applying to lower ranked schools are attending for free is false. There are more schools offering automatic full-tuition, but the difference between full-ride and full-tuition is $10-20,000, another # that is thrown around like it is meaningless. Only on CC is $40-80K dismissed as an insignificant amt. 
But competitive merit is exactly that. And, no, not all top students are easily receiving it. And , then, some posters dismiss the benefits that accompany some of the scholarships (like Stamps) as insignificant and blithely tell students to walk away from it for full pay elsewhere. That casual dismissal of $280,000 is a world removed from most people’s.
heres a long thread from awhile ago that got lots of action.
me: D16 had tuition scholarship to LAC; but didnt like it and transferred to state flagship and we are full pay. S15 is at state flagship with merit.