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How can we fix the college affordability problem?

It is no secret that we have a higher education affordability problem in the United States. The staggering costs can amount to $80,000 per year at private colleges and universities and $30,000 per year at public institutions. Who can afford that? Yet the true cost of college is typically much less than that because of financial aid. The real problem is that students from lower-income families still face charges far greater than they can afford even after accounting for financial aid.

In my forthcoming book on the crisis in college pricing, my research team used net price calculators at 200 randomly chosen four-year residential institutions to estimate how much colleges actually charge students at different income levels.

Republicans are Wrong; Doubling the Pell Grant Is Good Policy

Phillip B. Levine writes that such a change would directly benefit low-income students. Recently, a number of Republican lawmakers expressed opposition to proposals to double the Pell Grant. They argued that more generous grants would simply lead colleges to increase their prices, canceling out the intended benefit of making college more affordable for low-income students. However, not only […]

College Costs Are Notoriously Opaque. Use These Tools to See How Much You’ll Pay Before Applying

Michael Scarlett knew more about college costs than most parents. A professor of education at Augustana College in Illinois, he understood that the sticker prices colleges advertise are typically reduced dramatically with scholarships and grants, particularly at private institutions. But when it came time for his son Brendan to apply to college last year, he […]

Reassessing our Financial Aid Policies due to COVID

Many institutions are reassessing their financial aid policies in light of the COVID recession. What do college finances look like right now because of COVID and how tricky are financial calculations going to get? Dr. Phillip Levine, professor of economics at Wellesley College and founder of MyinTuition, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about where our […]

Dartmouth attributes MyinTuition with increasing the socioeconomic diversity of its early decision applicants

Dartmouth has offered admission to the first members of the Class of 2024, as 526 early decision applicants and an additional 21 applicants through the Quest Bridge National Match Program were notified of their acceptance on Dec. 12. Dartmouth received 2,069 early decision applications this year, marking the third consecutive year the College has received more than […]

Harvard EdCast: The Actual Cost of College

Helping families get past the sticker shock and discover what they might actually pay for college – When many people see the college price tag, they believe it’s financially out of reach. But Wellesley College Professor Phillip Levine, who studies college affordability, says that people often don’t realize there’s a difference between the price of college and the true amount a family might actually pay. Through the development of MyinTuition.org — an online tool that helps families uncover the actual cost — he hopes more students will achieve their college dreams.

The best tools and tips for finding a college you can afford, according to a financial aid expert

With constant news coverage of the $1.6 trillion student-debt crisis and the ways colleges, corporations and politicians propose reducing costs, it’s hard to ignore the fact that college is an expensive investment. There’s an especially dangerous side effect of so much focus on extreme college costs: Some students — often those who are most eligible for financial aid — […]

MyinTuition expands to UMass

Single UMass website provides MyinTuition estimates for all 4 campuses Today, all four undergraduate campuses of the University of Massachusetts system are taking an essential step towards clarifying college costs by implementing MyinTuition. UMass is now the first public university system to implement MyinTuition, which is available on one centralized website. UMass Amherst, UMass Boston, […]

A simple financial-aid calculator grows larger. You should try it out

“Regular readers know how valuable I find this easy financial-aid calculator for selective colleges. It shows that these colleges are much less expensive for middle-class and poor students than many of them — or their parents — imagine, thanks to financial aid.”

MyinTuition: Rapid Expansion of Fast, Free Tool to Help Students and Parents Estimate College Costs

NEWTON, Mass. – Stratospheric stated costs approaching $70,000 or more per year are commonplace at America’s private colleges and universities. More and more, students and their parents wonder whether college is “worth it.” Yet financial aid is available to most students, lowering those costs, perhaps significantly. The majority of students, though, only know the “sticker […]

Top Colleges Are Cheaper Than You Think (Unless You’re Rich)

The cost of college is a notoriously complex subject. The list price at many private colleges, including tuition, fees, room and board, has reached the bewildering sum of $70,000 a year. But the real price, taking into account financial aid, is often vastly lower. How much lower? We’re here to help answer that question.

More than 30 top colleges now participate in a simple online calculator that provides cost estimates to families. (And those 30 typically charge similar prices to other selective colleges.) The New York Times has analyzed the data from the calculator and is publishing the results here. It’s a snapshot of what college really costs.

These 31 colleges — including Yale — are now using a fast and easy financial aid calculator

by Nick Anderson When his two sons were growing up, a college professor named Phillip Levine found himself 10 years ago asking a question on the minds of parents perennially worried about the price of higher education: Would they qualify for financial aid? Levine, a Wellesley College economist, was frustrated to learn there were no easy […]

Two Big Misperceptions

By DAVID LEONHARDT This article is part of the Opinion Today newsletter. You can sign up here to receive the newsletter each weekday. I’m going to take a break from All Things Trump this morning to talk about two important misperceptions in American life: The Flu. If you’re like most American adults, you haven’t gotten a flu vaccine this […]

Sixteen Additional Top Universities Implement the Groundbreaking Cost Estimator, MyinTuition

Press contact: Phillip Levine, MyinTuition Corp. January 17, 2018 Today, sixteen additional top universities showcase their commitment to clarifying the cost of college by implementing MyinTuition, a revolutionary online tool that quickly and easily provides accurate college cost estimates. Prospective students will now be able to easily estimate costs to attend Babson College, Boston College, […]

19 fresh faces and bold new ideas from Boston

Pathbreaking women, a bacterial fountain of youth, mind-controlled video games, and more from 2017. By Dan Morrell, Janes Sullivan and Janelle Nanos JANUARY 10, 2018 1. Kyrie Irving It would be a shame to forget what Isaiah Thomas meant to the Celtics, but such has been Irving’s impact. Irving’s typically the best player on the […]

Tuition calculator helps soften the sticker shock

By Deirdre Fernandes GLOBE STAFF What does it cost to send your child to college? For parents trying to understand the price tag on a degree, getting the answer can be as daunting as deciphering the cost of a car on the dealership floor, where the sticker price rarely reflects the actual bill. But a growing number […]

Calculator Seeks To Help Prospective Students Understand The True Cost Of College

By Fred Thys Fifteen colleges, including seven in New England, are now offering an easy way for college applicants to figure out how much their education will cost. It’s a website, and it was the idea of a Wellesley College economist. He hopes more students will realize that the sticker price of college is not the […]

How Can We Make College Affordable? Some States Have It Down Better Than Others.

The crisis of college affordability is in the air. The agony of the 2017 college admissions cycle just came to an end; many students and families just spent a harrowing weekend figuring out how they will afford the bills. And New York State’s recently passed Excelsior Scholarship, which provides free in-state tuition at public universities […]

New College Cost Calculator Boosts Applications From Low-Income Students

By Kirk Carapezza It’s a dizzying time for high school seniors making their college decisions, but the next step — calculating how much it’s all going to cost — can be even more mind-boggling. Now, a handful of selective schools are trying to make the true price of college a little more transparent with […]

Only a Misunderstanding of What College Really Costs Could Have Produced New York’s Flawed Plan for Free Tuition

By Phillip B. Levine My father, a child of the Great Depression, used to say, “for free, take.” But sometimes free isn’t always a good deal. “Free college tuition” is an example of that. New York State’s recently passed Excelsior Scholarship, for instance, provides free tuition for all students whose family income is below $125,000. […]

College, Cheaper Than You Think

How much would you say it costs to attend a top private college like Dartmouth or Pomona for one year? I’m guessing that the first number that pops into your mind is quite large, like $60,000.For most Americans, that’s the wrong answer — and it’s wrong by a lot. The list-price tuition at these college does indeed run so high, but just a small slice of the population pays the list price. Typically, only families earning at least $200,000 a year fail to qualify for financial aid. For families with middle-class incomes, highly selective colleges are much, much less expensive.
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Professor hopes his quickie calculator will show low-income students they can afford a selective college

Make it easier to estimate real costs, and more students may take a chance on elite colleges by MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN Yuna Ishikawa was in her senior year of high school in 2014 when she made the drive with her mother from Oberlin, Ohio, to visit Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She loved the place, but not […]

A Simpler Financial-Aid Calculator Spreads

By David Leonhardt A simplified financial-aid calculator — much easier to use than the federally mandated calculators that most colleges create — has begun spreading beyond Wellesley College, where it began two years ago. The spread, to the University of Virginia and Williams College, starting Monday, raises the possibility that more colleges will follow and […]

Financial Aid, Simplified: A Better College Calculator

By David Leonhardt The financial-aid calculators maintained by colleges are a case study in both flawed bureaucracy and flawed customer service. As part of a 2008 higher-education law, Congress required colleges to build the calculators — online tools to let families estimate how much they’d really have to pay to attend a specific college. The […]

Why students have no idea what college actually costs

Some of the best low-income students don’t even bother to apply to colleges with the most aid. Why? Blame misleading data. By Danielle Paquette ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The teenager stapled together his family’s pay stubs, tax returns and credit card statements. He slid them into his red North Face backpack, between the Advanced Placement calculus […]

An Economics Professor’s Guide to Figuring out How Much College Costs

Calculating college costs can be utterly baffling. Phillip B. Levine, an economics professor at Wellesley College, argues that every school should offer a simplified financial aid calculator — or risk losing talented low-income prospects.
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Find Out if Your Dream School is Actually Affordable

Education may be more affordable than you think. Let Wellesley’s MyinTuition tool help you anticipate college cost and assist you in your planning efforts. Elite private colleges charge $65,000 or more to attend their institutions, which is out of reach for most students looking to attend college. Their defense is that they offer generous financial […]

Why are college costs so hard to figure out?

By Phillip B. Levine Editor’s note: Phillip B. Levine is Katharine Coman and A. Barton Hepburn Professor in the Department of Economics at Wellesley College. He helped develop My inTuition, a simplified calculator for college costs. CNN Films presents “Ivory Tower,” which looks at the problem of college affordability. The opinions expressed in this commentary […]

Transparency in College Costs

Executive Summary This paper addresses the lack of transparency in the college pricing system, past attempts to address the problem, and proposals to do more in the future, with a particular focus on selective, private higher educational institutions. Despite recent federal legislation, students still have limited ability to anticipate the costs of college. Survey evidence […]

Simplifying Estimates of College Costs.

Information—or lack of it—was the single most frequently expressed problem. Almost without exception students felt that they were not aware of the possible financial aid programs available to them. Students had no means of planning because they had no information on eligibility rules (College Scholarship Service Advisory Committee 1976, 1). That statement was one of the conclusions of a report summarizing […]

A New Way to Calculate the Cost of College

By Kirk Carapezza and Mallory Noe-Payne It’s a stressful time of year for students who are preparing to send out their college applications. But the next step – figuring out how much it’s all going to cost – can be even more stressful. Now there’s a new effort to make that complicated process a little […]

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College Costs and Affordability Essays