Today’s college prices can easily cause sticker shock. Annual published tuition at top-ranked institutions regularly tops $55,000, and it’s not unusual for public flagships to list out-of-state undergraduate tuition at $25,000 or more.
Those are eye-popping numbers when median U.S. household income is less than $68,000 and families need to pay for non-college expenses. Yet only the wealthiest students pay these sticker prices, as many institutions offer hefty unfunded financial aid packages in a practice called tuition discounting. But few students and their families know how much college will actually cost them when they apply, leading some to forgo applying to institutions that they may be able to afford.
