Net Price Data For Selective Private Colleges

College Search & Selection
1

From IPEDS 2015-16.
Net price after financial aid for family income ranges
$0-30K
$30-48K
$48-75K
$75-110K
grad rate after 6 years
SAT CR+Math midpoint

5739 3432 6975 10346 97 1440 Pomona College
3294 1665 6577 11222 97 1515 Harvard University
2551 2665 4536 12069 94 1525 University of Chicago
1630 4035 4061 12228 94 1480 Stanford University
4478 6378 9213 12537 73 1218 Beloit College
2469 2705 4557 12614 97 1495 Princeton University
5171 7929 6551 13934 98 1510 Yale University
9481 5251 6592 14262 94 1500 Columbia University in the City of New York
3482 4750 8451 14577 92 1505 Vanderbilt University
8939 10235 12858 15420 83 1270 Brigham Young University-Provo
7847 6468 10048 16240 97 1455 Dartmouth College
5968 3029 8633 16544 93 1525 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
8038 6165 12638 17330 94 1418 Swarthmore College
0920 1789 8962 18436 92 1390 Washington and Lee University
5788 6985 13966 18528 93 1388 Middlebury College
1910 3871 10448 19245 94 1435 Williams College
7335 8569 16092 20111 91 1370 Barnard College
6228 4764 13268 20290 93 1458 Amherst College
4939 5263 12322 20398 95 1475 University of Pennsylvania
6481 15007 17088 20451 89 1370 Colby College
8163 9010 11982 20977 95 1345 Davidson College
8631 10124 9788 21029 92 1390 Hamilton College
6892 6086 17589 21082 90 1375 Colgate University
3544 5652 6781 21219 94 1555 California Institute of Technology
7236 12861 12110 21260 90 1420 Haverford College
21525 16579 18059 21756 82 1250 Thomas Aquinas College
15762 16726 25102 21952 93 1500 Harvey Mudd College
15190 11927 19067 22009 91 1285 Wheaton College
4728 1302 7880 22049 95 1475 Duke University
9478 10141 14893 22171 95 1445 University of Notre Dame
5849 7164 12697 22308 96 1470 Brown University
12207 13473 14682 22396 92 1430 Carleton College
5398 6293 10080 22435 93 1490 Rice University
15209 16249 18396 22721 64 1250 Milwaukee School of Engineering
10688 13658 17319 22736 83 1335 Bryn Mawr College
11730 9896 15911 22870 90 1335 Kenyon College
16359 17629 18807 22912 86 1210 Centre College
16441 16586 19313 22982 69 1230 Hendrix College
9339 7150 12763 22983 94 1480 Northwestern University
10518 9025 13208 23158 94 1485 Washington University in St Louis
16848 14378 17423 23161 88 1375 Macalester College
8681 11387 14515 23205 88 1320 University of Richmond
8357 9228 12581 23218 91 1405 Wellesley College
5585 4743 12188 23635 91 1415 Vassar College
11963 16630 17437 24046 78 1380 Reed College
13233 3243 22738 24214 84 1365 Scripps College
11378 13430 15470 24241 77 1265 Trinity University
12297 7096 14488 24264 92 1485 Johns Hopkins University
13812 13406 19348 24324 91 1395 Emory University
19061 19074 23822 24399 73 1245 University of Tulsa
10929 10012 15816 24601 88 1260 St Olaf College
11071 16012 15261 24677 89 1225 Skidmore College
17157 16664 20050 24685 73 1205 Austin College
17123 17838 21317 24732 71 1245 Illinois Institute of Technology
13774 10160 17563 24776 86 1425 Grinnell College
5549 9179 15827 24810 93 1360 Boston College
17489 17849 21074 25053 79 1270 Lawrence University
14420 15528 22025 25066 76 1210 The College of Wooster
23036 23114 23874 25082 68 1235 Rochester Institute of Technology
11547 15258 17877 25494 81 1310 Occidental College
18934 20563 24363 25500 82 1285 Sarah Lawrence College
13047 14879 17573 25770 86 1420 Northeastern University
16751 12382 15456 26312 94 1430 Cornell University
16979 15466 24675 26744 79 1265 Rhodes College
15238 17942 21821 26877 88 1310 Whitman College
9222 10377 18872 26973 92 1445 Tufts University
6112 8637 15540 27365 94 1420 Georgetown University
12422 19704 23223 27571 83 1225 Muhlenberg College
7353 12372 21404 27682 89 1295 Lafayette College
14146 14731 24134 28091 85 1350 Oberlin College
19552 20464 23762 28167 79 1210 University of Denver
12098 15333 24233 28187 80 1285 Denison University
18303 19164 24434 28283 81 1265 Illinois Wesleyan University
20231 14106 18432 28298 89 1325 Lehigh University
26911 18903 23046 28385 82 1300 University of Miami
13395 14673 26730 28411 90 1375 Brandeis University
32872 13129 22968 28653 76 1310 St. John’s College
21970 23085 25110 28875 74 1220 Saint Louis University
21773 22618 26232 30023 87 1320 Boston University
11499 17173 18096 30341 93 1405 Claremont McKenna College
14615 18707 27623 31240 83 1325 Tulane University of Louisiana
18864 23482 25079 31438 79 1280 Lewis & Clark College
16072 20784 25405 31567 79 1315 Southern Methodist University
16002 16941 21751 31583 92 1390 University of Southern California
22681 22447 26394 31632 81 1245 American University
23038 20666 26883 31680 84 1288 George Washington University
19284 25649 29815 31871 90 1320 Villanova University
17855 18849 23449 32345 90 1465 Carnegie Mellon University
23449 24637 28248 32528 78 1205 University of San Diego
17287 20629 28484 32694 82 1385 Case Western Reserve University
27222 27694 29433 32721 74 1215 Baylor University
23527 24668 30468 32732 84 1205 Gonzaga University
21531 21787 28882 32740 83 1380 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
15660 18504 23818 32857 77 1255 Hobart William Smith Colleges
21314 28238 31258 33144 87 1220 Pepperdine University
24021 20985 29707 33261 82 1225 Yeshiva University
19257 18402 24514 33570 88 1290 Bucknell University
24834 25785 31221 34344 83 1350 Stevens Institute of Technology
24248 26904 32301 35865 80 1270 Fordham University
30641 32665 33997 36391 53 1230 Kettering University
16963 21359 21945 37021 89 1300 Santa Clara University
28279 28373 34848 39043 83 1225 Loyola Marymount University
22731 24621 33617 39118 85 1365 New York University
33717 36793 37345 39973 80 1225 Emerson College
34310 33899 34143 47058 79 1205 Chapman University

2

Good list and directionally good advice. but 2015 2016 is already outdated in this crazy world. Both costs and mid points are now at m ast for a few I was involved with this year. Gtown BC for example.

Really important to look at each schools fact set for 2018 and run NPCs for each. A few thousand dollars can be like a million dollars for many families.

3

I like to use data that has been reported to the US Department of Education in accordance to their standard definitions and then reviewed by the US Department of Education. I tend to trust their data because schools can be punished for misrepresentation. The 2015-16 year is the most recent available.

4

Don’t assets also affect the NPC at many of these colleges? Families need to run the NPCs themselves.

Re: midpoints, that is the Old SAT, gone for over two yrs. Can you explain exactly where the midpoint number comes from - did you calculate that yourself?

For what it’s worth, 2017-18 data (Class of 2021, fall 2017) is available at NCES, which I believe to be IPEDS data. Exactly what database does the OP come from?

5

How did you decide which colleges to include in this, @collegehelp ? I get hat 2015-2016 is the most recent available.

6

The SATs are from the US Department of Education IPEDS database 2016-17 which is the most recent available and the midpoint is the sum of the IPEDS Critical Reading and the Math midpoints (sum of the 25th and 75th percentiles divided by 2). IPEDS data is the most trustworthy data source. I included private not-for-profit schools with SAT critical reading 25th percentile of at least 500 and CR+math midpoint at least 1200 and which were in the following Carnegie Classifications:
15 Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity

16 Doctoral Universities: Higher Research Activity

17 Doctoral Universities: Moderate Research Activity

18 Master’s Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs

19 Master’s Colleges & Universities: Medium Programs

20 Master’s Colleges & Universities: Small Programs

21 Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus

22 Baccalaureate Colleges: Diverse Fields

7

For anyone interested in making their own comparisons, the NCES website has the more recent 2017-18 IPEDS data available by looking up individual colleges in College Navigator here https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/ than the older data apparently already aggregated into statistical tables here https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data. In College Navigator, families can select colleges as “favorites” and then create a comparison chart. From what little I have seen, that might be laborious or impossible for comparing 50+ colleges, but for an individual student’s brief college list, it might be a useful tool and would access data two years newer than what is posted above.

8

Not sure how these can be accurate, unless they also account for outside scholarships, since those schools net price calculators show (for US citizens) minimum net prices of $4,600 and $5,000 respectively (expected student work earnings that may be replaced by outside scholarships).

https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/net-price-calculator
https://financialaid.stanford.edu/undergrad/how/calculator/

Students and parents should run each college’s net price calculator to get estimates more applicable to their own financial situations. If the parents are divorced, be careful; see http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2083835-faq-divorced-parents-financial-aid-and-net-price-calculators.html .

9

US News offers a different approach:

% receiving Grant Aid based on need; Average Cost After Receiving Grants Based On Need;
2016 Average Discount

  1. Princeton 60% $16,793 74%

  2. Harvard 55% $16,338 76%

  3. Yale 50% $18,385 73%

  4. Stanford 47% $19,926 71%

  5. MIT 58% $20,331 69%

  6. Columbia 48% $21,041 71%

  7. Dartmouth 50% $23,312 67%

  8. Caltech 51% $23,973 64%

  9. UNC-Ch Hill 41% $17,815 64%

  10. Duke 41% $23,374 67%

  11. Vanderbilt 46% $23,323 64%

  12. Penn 47% $25,441 63%

  13. Brown 41% $24,482 64%

  14. Chicago 42% $27,767 61%

  15. Rice 37% $23,996 61%

  16. Emory 42% $24,264 63%

  17. Cornell 44% $28,068 59%

  18. JHU 45% $30,067 56%

  19. Notre Dame 47% $29,653 56%

  20. Northwestern 43% $31,087 56%

  21. Wash U.StL. 41% $29,245 58%

  22. Wake Forest 30% $24,241 64%

  23. U. Rochester 51% $28,476 58%

  24. Tufts 34% $27,034 60%

25)Georgetown 34% $29,667 58%

Biggest average need based grant discounts among LACs are :

Williams 71% avg. discount from total cost

Amherst 72%

Pomona 72%

Wellesley 67%

Swarthmore 68%

Vassar 69%, Soka 56%, Middlebury 68%, Principia 65%, Wash. & Lee 67%, Grinnell 62%, Davidson 65%, Bowdoin 64%, Colgate 68%, Colby 66%, Haverford 66%, College of the Atlantic 64%, Smith 63%, Hamilton 63%, Univ. of Richmond 63%, Macalester 58%, Agnes Scott 55%, Carleton College58%, Wesleyan 63%, Knox56%, Bates 62%, Bryn Mawr 61%, Franklin & Marshall 63% & Claremont McKenna 61%.

10

My concern about the original post in this thread is that the title might be misleading if the “net price” included reductions for loans. The US News data only includes grant aid which does not have to be repaid as it is a gift based on financial need.

11

Here is how the average net price by income level is calculated in the IPEDS database. It is pretty complicated. It takes into account the average cost of room and board for various living arrangements such as on campus, off campus, with parents, and so on. I chose income level $48K-$75K as an example but the procedure is the same for other income levels.

Variable Description
Average net price for full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduates who were awarded title IV federal student aid - INCOME LEVEL (48,001-75,000). Title IV federal student aid, includes federal grants or federal student loans.

Applicable to private not-for-profit and for-profit institutions with standard calendar systems (semester, quarter, trimester, 4-1-4) that report financial aid data for students enrolled for the FALL and awarded aid anytime during the full aid year. These institutions report cost of attendance for the full academic year.

Also, applicable to public or private institutions that measure courses primarily by contact hours, or offers primarily occupational programs measured in credit hours with calendar systems that are continuous, or differs by programs. These institutions report financial aid data for students enrolled between the 12-month period (September 1 through August 31) and awarded aid anytime during the full aid year. These institutions report cost of attendance for their largest program for the length of that program.

For institutions that report cost of attendance for the full academic year an average yearly net price is generated by subtracting the average amount of federal, state or local government, or institutional grant and scholarship aid from the total cost of attendance. Total cost of attendance is the sum of published tuition and required fees, books and supplies and the weighted average room and board and other expenses.

The weighted average for room and board and other expenses is generated as follows:

(amount for on-campus room, board and other expenses * # of students living on-campus.

  • amount for off-campus (with family) room, board and other expenses * # of students living off-campus with family
  • amount for off-campus (not with family) room, board and other expenses * # of students living off-campus not with family)

divided by the total # of students.

Students whose living arrangements are unknown are excluded from the calculation. For some institutions the # of students by living arrangement will be known, but dollar amounts will not be known. In this case the # of students with no corresponding dollar amount will be excluded from the denominator.

For institutions that report the cost of attendance for their largest program for the length of that program, the cost of attendance is generated as stated above, but is then divided by the number of months to complete the program to produce a monthly cost of attendance. The average amount of federal, state or local government, or institutional grant and scholarship aid is also divided by 12 to produce a monthly average. The average net price is generated by subtracting the average monthly grant and scholarship aid from the average monthly cost of attendance and the difference is multiplied by the number of months to complete the program.

Full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduates - A student enrolled in a 4- or 5-year bachelor’s degree program, an associate’s degree program, or a vocational or technical program below the baccalaureate level, who has no prior postsecondary experience, and is enrolled for 12 or more semester credits, or 12 or more quarter credits, or 24 or more contact hours a week each term.
Variable Sources
IPEDS, Winter 2016-17, Student Financial Aid component

12

Are loans factored in to arrive at the discounted price ?

13

Loans are not factored in. Only financial aid that does not have to be repaid is factored in.

14

I’m not a big numbers cruncher nor any type of data analyst, but these lists are a bit misleading. I have personal experience with 2 of the schools on these lists: Notre Dame and UNC. The last list shows UNC being more generous/costing less “on average.” I have found the opposite to be true - by a lot. And this was true when you account for just one child being in college and also for when two are in college. And so my point is, I don’t think these help much when trying to figure out what the cost may actually be.

15

The list in the original post must have taken some time to assemble.
Notwithstanding some of the issues cited above, I think such a list is a good contribution to the forum.

Someone might be able to use a list like this to help identify the kinds of schools where admission chances are realistic and generous n-b aid is likely. You’d still want to run the online net price calculators on specific schools (because the averages cover broad income ranges and don’t account directly for important factors such as family size or assets.)

I wonder why in some cases the first column figures are higher than the second column figures.

16

I wondered why as well.

17

Seems like that outside scholarships are included (see reply #7), and there may be very few students in those categories (for many of these schools, fewer than a fifth of the students are likely to be in the lowest two income ranges, based on Pell grant percentages), so that such anomalies can occur due to outside scholarships among those students.

18

In-state vs out thing maybe?

19

“Tuition discounting” is really more about optics than anything else since the official tuition sticker price is fully a function of how much the wealthiest family attending that college can pay and nothing else. Technically, all it takes is one family able to pay a million dollars a year and you could come up with a tuition discount of 99% for everyone else.

20

I agree that it is surprising to find higher average net price for a lower income level. I’m not sure how that happens. Perhaps students from higher income levels are more likely to receive merit awards. Perhaps it is an error in reporting. Perhaps some schools have a very peculiar aid formula. Just speculating.