Don't let the sticker price fool you.
This new tool shows what students really pay for college, based on their family income. We've got trends, too. Search from more than 3,000 colleges and universities in the United States.
Don’t let the sticker price fool you.
This new tool shows what students really pay for college, based on their family income. We’ve got trends, too. Search from more than 3,000 colleges and universities in the United States.
Visit TuitionTracker.org and start searching.
Click Special Projects to view the original stories by Holly Hacker and Jon Marcus.
Click Latest News below to view stories from around the country drawn from the Tuition Tracker database.
Texas Public Universities Are More Affordable Compared with Most States
Texas public universities remain more affordable compared with most states, though out-of-pocket costs for many families continue to rise.That’s based on a Dallas Morning News analysis of cost data that colleges report to the federal government.
The published cost to attend a Texas public university averages more than $20,000 a year for in-state students. Thanks to financial aid, most students pay less than that.
Data Show Poorer Families Are Bearing the Brunt of College Price Hikes
America’s colleges and universities are quietly shifting the burden of their big tuition increases onto low-income students, while many higher-income families are seeing their college costs rise more slowly, or even fall, an analysis of federal data shows.
It’s a trend financial-aid experts and some university administrators worry will further widen the gap between the nation’s rich and poor as college degrees—especially four-year ones—drift beyond the economic reach of growing numbers of students.
Wealthier Families Increasingly Benefit from Federal, College Financial Aid
It’s not just colleges and universities that are shifting their financial aid from lower-income to higher-income students.
Tuition tax credits and other tax breaks to offset the cost of higher education — nearly invisible federal government subsidies for families that send their kids to college — also disproportionately benefit more affluent Americans. So do tax-deductible savings plans and the federal work-study program, which gives taxpayer dollars to students who take campus jobs to help pay for their expenses.
How Some Families Pay Less for College Than Others
The sticker price at Pennsylvania State University runs about $30,000 a year for in-state students. At Swarthmore College, it’s nearly twice that.
Yet Swarthmore ends up being cheaper for most students. That’s because this private liberal-arts college near Philadelphia offers many families a hefty discount, bringing down the average cost to even less than taxpayer-subsidized Penn State’s.