[CTcard]

The NY Times has an interesting table about college affordability at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017...table.html

Stanford shows up as having the lowest "net price" for a student from a middle-income family.  Harvard is second-lowest.

This makes an important point that too often gets lost in the noise about the cost of college.  At this point, the "expensive" schools are expensive only if you come from a pretty well-off family.  For middle-income (or low-income) kids, those schools are often a lot cheaper than the state schools (according to this table, the net price a middle-income student would pay to attend Kal is more than twice what it would cost to attend Stanford).

An interesting list in many ways.

The elite private schools tend to do well on the cost for middle income individuals largely because they have the resources to offer lots of financial aid. The more average private schools tend to be the worst on this list, as they have nowhere else to turn to keep the lights on.

It used to be that the (top) private schools had high sticker prices with steep discounts based upon income - essentially the wealthy students subsidizing the poorer; whereas public schools had much lower sticker prices and little financial aid - essentially tax payers subsidizing everyone. The second part of that has largely broken down in recent years with retreating state subsidy of universities and the top public schools are moving towards the price policies of private schools. The biggest losers on that development tend to be upper-middle class families (or perhaps lower-upper class families(?), but I rarely see that term used).

On that same list, the public schools on the lowest costs for middle income students come in at:
#10 Florida
#13 William and Mary
#19 Michigan
#21 UNC
#28 UC - San Diego
#29 UC - LA
#30 UC - Berkeley



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I do wonder about exactly how the calculate the cost for a student with a family income of $48-75K per year. Most schools have significantly different aid for different levels within that range. I assume it is really the cost at the middle of that range.

[CTcard]

The NY Times has an interesting table about college affordability at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017...table.html

Stanford shows up as having the lowest "net price" for a student from a middle-income family.  Harvard is second-lowest.

This makes an important point that too often gets lost in the noise about the cost of college.  At this point, the "expensive" schools are expensive only if you come from a pretty well-off family.  For middle-income (or low-income) kids, those schools are often a lot cheaper than the state schools (according to this table, the net price a middle-income student would pay to attend Kal is more than twice what it would cost to attend Stanford).

An interesting list in many ways.

The elite private schools tend to do well on the cost for middle income individuals largely because they have the resources to offer lots of financial aid. The more average private schools tend to be the worst on this list, as they have nowhere else to turn to keep the lights on.

It used to be that the (top) private schools had high sticker prices with steep discounts based upon income - essentially the wealthy students subsidizing the poorer; whereas public schools had much lower sticker prices and little financial aid - essentially tax payers subsidizing everyone. The second part of that has largely broken down in recent years with retreating state subsidy of universities and the top public schools are moving towards the price policies of private schools. The biggest losers on that development tend to be upper-middle class families (or perhaps lower-upper class families(?), but I rarely see that term used).

On that same list, the public schools on the lowest costs for middle income students come in at:
#10 Florida
#13 William and Mary
#19 Michigan
#21 UNC
#28 UC - San Diego
#29 UC - LA
#30 UC - Berkeley



--------------
I do wonder about exactly how the calculate the cost for a student with a family income of $48-75K per year. Most schools have significantly different aid for different levels within that range. I assume it is really the cost at the middle of that range.