It is well known that high school students are more skeptical about going to college. Most of their hesitation It comes from the fear of taking on thousands of dollars in student loans.
After researching the annual tuition fees for the colleges they have their eye on, they’re likely to be shocked by the figure — which may be equivalent to their parents’ annual salary.
But should students be prepared to have to scrape together the full amount?
Based on EdSurge’s number crunching, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Students generally don’t pay full tuition at public colleges and universities, according to federal data from College Scorecard. The data only tracks students who receive federal financial aid, such as grants or loans, but even at the most expensive public colleges, students usually receive some sort of discount, regardless of income level.
The average full-rate tuition at 1,800 public universities is about $17,300 per year. When student grants and scholarships are taken into account, the average net cost drops to $10,200.
But for college-bound high school students and their families, especially those who are low-income or the first in their families to earn a graduate degree, the total cost of tuition can be unsettling.
Students who don’t choose a university based on price alone Internet Price Calculator The aim is to see how much students will be paying after receiving their scholarships, said Jill DeJean, director of policy analysis for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
“As with everything in higher education, one size doesn’t fit all. Some schools have a lot of students who don’t pay full price, and some schools have a lot of students who do,” she explains. But full tuition is “not what most students will pay, so don’t be put off by the list price. What you pay will likely be discounted to some extent.”
How household income impacts tuition fees
The net price range tends to be at both extremes, with a few colleges reporting that students, on average, got their money back thanks to financial aid, while at other colleges students reported seeing little difference in prices before and after receiving financial aid.
UC Berkeley is one of the most expensive public universities in the United States, with the average annual tuition fee coming in at just over $41,000, according to federal data. This includes tuition, fees, books, supplies, and living expenses.
But once grants and scholarships are applied, that number drops to an average net price of about $17,400. For students in the lowest income bracket (those with a household income of $30,000 or less), the average net price is $9,200. Still not cheap, but about one-fifth of the original price. For students in the highest income bracket in the data (those with a household income of $110,000 or more), the average net price was $36,200.
this is, analysis A Brookings Institution study found that household income is a better indicator than list price of what students can expect to pay in tuition. Nonresident senior fellow Philip Levin found that between the 1995 and 2019 academic years, the percentage of students enrolled at state universities who paid full tuition fell from 53% to 26%. For students enrolled at private, nonprofit universities, it fell from 29% to 16%.
“Typically, net prices rise with income,” he said in the report. “For every additional dollar of income, net prices rise by about 16 cents.”
The net cost of higher education is rising for students at all income levels, he wrote.
DeJean said price can be a barrier for students of all income levels, as factors like parental income and family size and college costs are taken into account when calculating how much financial aid a student can qualify for. But lower-income families generally face tougher choices when it comes to covering the costs of college.
“I think that lower-income students are disproportionately affected, even if they have scholarships, just because they have less discretionary money,” DeJean said. “Higher-income families might say, ‘I can’t take a vacation this year,’ whereas lower-income families might not take a vacation. So one thing they’re going to have to give up is cutting into their already tight grocery budgets.”
First-generation and low-income students may not know much about the financial aid available to them, but other students may have people around them who can advise them and encourage them to look into all the aid options available to them, she said.
DeJean added that families with similar incomes may have very different budgetary requirements and differing ideas about whether they can cut spending to pay for college.
Organizations like the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators
It seeks to dispel misconceptions about scholarships, such as that applying for them is too difficult or that students who mistakenly believe they are ineligible should not apply.
The U.S. Department of Education’s chaotic rollout of the new FAFSA system for the 2023-2024 school year put itself at a disadvantage when technical issues meant some students missed out on receiving scholarships.
That’s a shame, DeJean said, because the new system delivered on its promise to make applying for federal aid faster and easier if students could use it.
“This year should have been a year to really celebrate these changes and say, ‘Hey guys, applying for scholarships is easy. Go ahead and apply,'” she says. “Unfortunately, old mindsets have persisted or maybe old mindsets have been amplified. So I think what we all need to do in the college admissions space is remind students, ‘This year hasn’t been great, but the FAFSA has improved. Next year will be even better. Don’t be scared.'”
