Families with college-bound students may well have shuddered when they heard that the official, full cost of a year at some four-year private schools will soon hit six figures.
But outrage over mushrooming college “sticker” prices clouds a reality that some families may not fully understand: Few students pay the full price.
On average, private nonprofit colleges cut tuition by more than half for first-time undergraduates, according to a recent report from the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
That means college sticker prices — the full “cost of attendance” that the federal government requires colleges to publish — are an increasingly unreliable indicator of what a family will pay, according to a report titled, in part, “Ignore the Sticker Price,” and published Friday by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
That goes for both low- and middle-income families, as well as for higher-income families that don’t qualify for need-based aid.
Persons:
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Organizations:
National Association of College and University Business, Brookings Institution
Locations:
Washington