The reason why it's virtually impossible to get tuition & prices at expensive schools is because it's socialist. "From each according to ability, to each according to need." Tuition at MIT is free if you (or your parents) make under $100K/year. Same with Stanford.
The price you pay for any income range between there and full price depends upon this incredibly convoluted form, the FAFSA, that basically involves listing every asset and income source available to you, and then the college quoting a price back to you, which will be some combination of parental contribution, work/study, and loans, with the remainder made up by grants from the college.
Sticker price at Amherst when I went was just over $40K/year, including room & board. My parents actually paid about $12K/year, I think, with another couple thousand in loans for me.
Right. And I think this is a whole different and also entirely interesting topic. I'm constantly surprised how many families don't simply "cut loose" their 18 year old so that they have virtually no income when filling out their FAFSA paperwork. It almost guarantees favorable student aid.
More importantly, when private universities do post their tuition, they don't post them as "max tuition pending review of financial status", but increasingly they are as no reasonable person will pay something closing in on a quarter million dollars for an undergraduate degree (I'm thinking tuition, books, supplies, food, housing, the whole shebang) that some schools these days are commanding.
And I think it's because the universities spend quite a bit of effort trying to figure out how to shift the tuition to a deferment rather than a waiver or reduction. So we get a "tuition" link right next to the "financial aid" link and a wink and nod from the school because surely everybody knows those rates are negotiable.
I think I return to my main point which is that a decent undergrad education in the U.S. doesn't really have to cost $100k-$250k no matter the school one attends. However, the ridiculous rates private schools post doesn't help things. Their actual average tuition rate is likely much much lower - and the full price is a "penalty rate" for coming from money.
What's troubling is how a relatively simple breakdown like I provided earlier up this thread or yours seems to be a great mystery.
The price you pay for any income range between there and full price depends upon this incredibly convoluted form, the FAFSA, that basically involves listing every asset and income source available to you, and then the college quoting a price back to you, which will be some combination of parental contribution, work/study, and loans, with the remainder made up by grants from the college.
Sticker price at Amherst when I went was just over $40K/year, including room & board. My parents actually paid about $12K/year, I think, with another couple thousand in loans for me.