With college, there’s the sticker price and the actual price you pay. This is the real cost for each school.
There are two prices for every college degree: the sticker price and the net price. The sticker price is the number that most schools list in their brochures. The net price is that very same number less scholarships, grants and financial aid. It is what you actually pay. For an incoming freshman, this net price is the number that matters the most, and until recently, it was also the number that we knew the least about.
This month, the Department of Education released , a tool commissioned by the Obama administration to help students make better choices about college, and about spending money on college. The creators of the scorecard decided to exclude the sticker price altogether. Instead, they focused exclusively on the average net price for all students. But there’s one problem with this approach. It leaves out a key variable administrators use in determining how much college will cost a student: family income.
Search below to see how much each school actually costs: …
