The Cost of College

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College will cost up to $95,000 this fall. Schools say it’s OK, financial aid can numb sticker shock A number of private colleges — some considered elite and others middle-of-the-pack — have exceeded the $90,000 threshold for the first time this year as they set their annual costs for tuition, board, meals and other expenses. That means a family with three children could expect to shell out more than $1 million by the time their youngest child completes a four-year degree. But the sticker price tells only part of the story. Read more.

Why this matters: The sticker prices don’t always provide apples-to-apples comparisons because some colleges include costs like health insurance and travel expenses, while others don’t.   Many colleges with large endowments have become more focused in recent years on making college affordable for students who aren’t wealthy. Lower-income families may be required to pay just 10% of the advertised rate and, for some, attending a selective private college can be cheaper than a state institution.   But many prospective students this year are facing significant delays and anxiety in finding out how much aid they will be offered by colleges. This is due to major problems with the rollout of a new U.S. Department of Education online form that was supposed to make applying for federal aid easier. Many colleges rely on information from the form for determining their own aid offers to students.

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