Colleges have collectively chosen some interesting dates for decisions and deadlines. The universal “decision date” by which most colleges issue acceptances or rejections is April 1, which certainly feels like a cruel joke to students who don’t get the answers they had hoped for. On the other hand, Early Action and Early Decision application deadlines for most colleges are on November 1, making Halloween all the more frightful as procrastinating students work through the night to finish their applications.
But, for some families, the cruelest and most frightening part of getting into college is paying for it. College is roughly four times more expensive than it was when most parents of current high school students attended. That means that the annual cost of attendance at in-state public schools is now pushing $30,000, the cost of out-of-state public colleges is between $40,000 and $65,000, and private schools can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $80,000.
If simply reading those numbers gave you a jump scare, allow me to make a couple of qualifications that might bring your heart rate down. First, the cost of attendance includes everything from tuition and fees, to room and board, to books and personal expenses, which means that some of those expenses are already in your current budget. For instance, you’re already paying for food and educational supplies, so those costs are not going to add to your budget unless they are significantly higher in college than in high school.
Secondly, the prices I quoted are what one might call “sticker prices.” Just like you don’t usually pay the full MSRP when you buy a car, you often don’t pay the full advertised price for college.
But sometimes you do.
And this is where knowing what you’re in for ahead of time keeps you from an unpleasant surprise when you turn the corner. Not every college is going to discount their prices. In fact, in-state public universities rarely do. The colleges that do give generous discounts are typically public universities in states that don’t have a strong college-going base or lesser selective private universities. At a number of colleges, what you see is what you get when it comes to cost unless you qualify for need-based financial aid; and, even then, the cost of attendance at an out-of-state or private university is rarely less than what you would pay at an in-state public university.
Most of my client families pay at least $25,000 per year for tuition, fees, room, board and personal expenses. If you’re not budgeting for that, it’s time to start. It’s also never too early to find out if and how much financial aid you qualify for or how much scholarship you might receive at a particular college. Most of this information is readily available on colleges’ websites. To determine your potential financial aid, fill out the net price calculator on the colleges’ financial aid page. To determine your chance for scholarship, go to the scholarships page. Many colleges will automatically award predetermined scholarship amounts based on a base GPA and standardized test scores. Others will at least tell you what kind of student might qualify for their competitive scholarships.
Learning how much college will cost you can be a scary proposition, but it’s not nearly as cruel as having the cost sneak up on you when it’s too late to make a plan for how to manage it.
