The price of college

The list price at selective private colleges approaches a mind-blowing $80,000 a year, and it’s not far behind for out-of-state students at some public colleges in the U.S. But as Ron Lieber, a personal-finance columnist for The Times, notes, “list prices are increasingly irrelevant for most families.”

Middle-class and low-income students typically receive large scholarships — and can receive larger ones if they have excellent grades in high school. Even affluent students can receive a lot of financial aid with top grades.

Ron has just published a book that tries to explain the maddeningly complex subject of college finances, called “The Price You Pay for College.” In it, he makes a fascinating point: Many parents talk in great detail with their children about the ways in which sports can earn them college acceptances and scholarships.

Yet athletics are not the best route to a scholarship for most students, Ron writes. Academics are. “Each spring, I hear from otherwise well-informed parents of high school seniors who had no idea that this so-called merit aid existed, let alone how to predict where good grades might yield the lowest price or the best value,” Ron told me. “I wanted to make sure that families knew all about it, much sooner.”
The New York Times