<p>If the $50,000-a-year price of a prestigious private college looks unreal to most families, well, it's not real. At least, not for most students.</p>
<p>The sticker price of private college has soared in the past five years, feeding a common perception that the most expensive schools are beyond the reach of most families. But net price -- the amount the average student actually pays -- has declined.</p>
<p>So the published “sticker price” will not be the net cost for a large percentage of students. But they can’t know the actual cost until they apply, get accepted, and receive notice of merit and need based aid. It’s getting harder to get into many schools. Colleges get so many applications they end up turning away many perfectly qualified applicants.</p>
<p>Students can’t predict which schools will accept them. They can’t determine in advance if they can afford a particular school. Best course of action is to apply to 15-20 schools and see where you get in an how much it will cost. Hope for a least a couple viable choices.</p>
<p>Then, colleges report record number of applications! They are surpised at this given the tough economy. The acceptance rate drops even further. Some students who got in never really wanted to go there, but were covering their bases (see paragraph above). If this was your top choice and you were rejected, you are mad.</p>
<p>Next year’s high school seniors - best course of action is to apply to even more schools!</p>
<p>Anyone see a vicious circle here?</p>
<p>^^ I do. So applicants should first try to identify colleges that are both financial and admissions safeties that they would really want to attend, and then work on selecting their more selective choices.</p>
<p>But for those who are full pay, the price just goes up. I love the quote from the Georgetown student about $55,000 a year costing $200,000 over four. Isn’t it $220,000? It would be wonderful if they would use all that aid to lower the cost across the board.</p>
<p>this is riduculous claim that the average is going down, at the top private “need blind” college, usually between 40 to 60% of the students/parents are paying the full price.</p>
<p>It is always amazing how they consistently hit the ratio though supposedly being “need blind”. </p>
<p>For upper class folks , as I have seen in my neighborhood, the top high school kids went to the flagship public school not to the top private schools, even though they were accepted there. It was simply too expensive.</p>
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<p>I agree that the ballooning cost of attendance at private - and public - schools is outrageous. That said, is it really a crime to go to a flagship public school (more than likely debt-free)?</p>
<p>I thought this quote from the article was interesting:</p>
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<p>I wonder if they will attract less full pay kids when their parents find out how much more they are actually paying.</p>
<p>Mammy’s observation mirrors my thinking. There really appears to be no end to this current cycle as the published tuition figures become utterly meaningless to most applicants.</p>
<p>wow! that will force transparency on these college and really drop applications. Parents will be able to comparison shop before allowing their child to apply to colleges. This will be a game changing innovation. So do we thank Senator Grassley of Iowa for forcing this? </p>
<p>This is something I did not know and wished we had before touring all of those colleges two summers ago.</p>
<p>The top private colleges and LAC’s should be forced to have a little kiosk set up and the admin building before the tours, parents can enter their financial information. Most will then end up saying “we’re outta here!”</p>
<p>Many college websites and fairs have a system like that. They don’t make any guarantee that that’s what you’ll pay, but it’s a good estimate of how much aid you might receive. Of course, there are lots of people who either don’t know about it or are too lazy to take advantage of that, but that’s hardly the college’s fault.</p>
<p>I really don’t understand the problem here. You apply to schools intelligently so that you have some choices, and then base those choices on the factors that are important to you, including money of course.</p>
<p>All this stuff really gets me frustrated that we’ll be paying full fare. We saved, that’s how.
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<p>Another way to pay Robin Hood:
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<p>That’s right, girl!
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<p>limabeans: ditto here; we are no way as wealthy as others, but we have saved since the pregnancy test came back positive; and sacrificed to do so…maybe we should have taken those vacations…</p>
<p>The river of tax money that flows into higher education is a major cause of the spiraling costs. It is corrupting higher ed in the same way it corrupted health care. Sticker prices mean less and less, but there is little incentive to cut costs when one can plead poverty and lobby for more and more student and institutional aid.</p>
<p>There was a good study a while back that showed that some of the California public schools altered their pricing structure to maximize their federal aid. More tuition aid to students didn’t affect the cash price that the students paid as the college just changed other prices. The goal was simply to maximize the total cash take from all sources. The money does affect the amount paid for those who work at colleges, and as higher ed is self-referential in setting salaries, they go up and up.</p>
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<p>Ahh, a double whammy - being hit by not only savvy marketers but also blinded by the Obama income redistribution syndrome</p>
<p>I feel sorry for those folks who pay full price (and I would likely be one of them thanks to saving and not spending wildly like others - but I am counting on some merit $ my d should earn (and some probably given by the savvy marketers 
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<p>I’m paying full price for S at a $49K LAC. Next year D will be attending a $34K private univ. The $49K LAC gives out a lot more financial aid. The $34K univ has a note on their Fin Aid page that asks students to remember the NET cost of attending, rather than focusing the size of the scholarships they may be offered, because this univ tries to keep its cost reasonable for everyone. I prefer that approach to the charge-a-ton-and-then-give-more-aid approach. Ironically the expensive LAC has an endowment many times larger than the lower-cost univ. Not sure what they’re doing with all that money, obviously not using it to keep the sticker price down!</p>
<p>INCOME is really the determining factor of how much you pay. Yes, assets have an effect but not as much as you would think. Official retirement accounts aren’t counted, although last year’s contribution does. House equity counts as an asset in SOME cases. Savings/investments count, but only after an asset protection amount is subtracted out.</p>
<p>If you have $150,000 in savings/checking, then schools subtract out the asset protection amount (let’s say $50,000), leaving $100,000 at 6% = $6,000 added to your EFC. That isn’t as big an increase as some people expect. If you have 2 kids in school, that is halved. So, those having $150,000 in savings really are better off than those who have no savings and have had to scrape by with low paying jobs, or worse yet in this economy no jobs. Obviously if you have $500,000 in savings, then the increase in EFC will definitely hurt ($450,000 x .06 = $27,000). Then add home equity added into the mix. Ouch.</p>
<p>What makes the situation more difficult is cost of living isn’t considered so a $60,000 income is considered high in some places but you’d be just getting by in high cost areas (CA, NYC, etc). Those living in low income areas simply say “move” but that really isn’t the answer, esp now. WHO would give up a job?</p>
<p>We also sacrificed to save. Camping vacations, no increase in lifestyle from when we got married (we drive 10+ yr old cars, no house upgrade, no big gifts). We live in a high cost area so incomes are deceiving. Despite being laid off twice due to downsizing, we didn’t have the luxury of moving to a lower cost area. We needed to be near medical specialists (NYC) who have experience treating a specific rare condition. Unfortunately we’ve had high medical bills for nearly twenty years. </p>
<p>So, it pays to do some FA homework first - determine what situation would help the most -and then look for schools that fit your individual situation.</p>
<p>If you own a home, find schools who don’t consider home equity (FAFSA only schools and some Profile schools). THAT was a hugh factor for us as home values are high here (although they have dropped significantly recently).</p>
<p>Is your income low enough to qualify for loan-free schools? Top schools were recently offering loan-free FA pkgs to most students but now it looks like loan-free will apply only to those at low incomes (very poor in high COA areas, perhaps middle class elsewhere). Plenty of schools include loans in their FA pkgs and still claim to meet 100% of financial need. Other schools include a gap, which often requires more loans (it did in my D’s case). So, if you can qualify for loan-free schools, that could be a huge help. </p>
<p>Will you be better off with merit $? If you have a low EFC, then the college usually will just use the merit award to reduce need. You will still need to pay your entire EFC. If you have a high EFC, then merit can be a big help. It may even reduce your EFC. Will you qualify for merit aid? If so, check the requirements for keeping the merit award (min GPA needed). What % of those given merit awards as incoming freshman keep those awards through graduation? Check whether a school’s merit aid is based in part on need or is it strictly merit? Some schools require you to file FAFSA even if you won’t qualify for need based aid to be eligible for merit awards. Make sure you know the rules first. </p>
<p>Check deadlines for scholarships/merit awards and Financial Aid documents. Do NOT be late.</p>
<p>Unfortunately we learned as we went with our first child. I wish we had learned beforehand so we would have had better choices…</p>