Hopefully obvious fact: Some colleges cost more than others. 

Example: Here are the approximate prices of four colleges located within 25 miles of each other.

• Central Piedmont Community College: $3,000

• University of North Carolina at Charlotte: $25,000

• Queens University of Charlotte: $53,000

• Davidson College: $70,000

These Cost of Attendance (COA) prices listed on the colleges’ websites are also referred to as “sticker prices.”

More important (and interesting) fact: 

The sticker price of a college is often very different from what a student actually pays.

Example: Here are the amounts Hypothetical Harriet could end up paying to attend each of the above colleges.

• Central Piedmont Community College: $0

• University of North Carolina at Charlotte: $6,000

• Queens University of Charlotte: $14,000

• Davidson College: $6,000

These “what you actually end up paying” dollar amounts are called “net prices.”

As you can see, the net price may be very, very different (and much lower!) than the sticker price of a college. Net prices are always either the same or lower than the sticker price.

You may also have noticed that the “cheapest-to-most-expensive” line up doesn’t match up with what you may have expected.

Then why don’t colleges just post their net prices instead of their sticker prices?

Great question. Because the net price a college charges depends on the student.

Final, most important fact: 

Students at the same college often pay different amounts for the exact same classes and experiences.

Example: Here are four possible net costs of Queens University of Charlotte (the one with a sticker price of $53,000) for four different students for their freshman year.

• Annie: $6,000

• Billy: $53,000

• Cindy: $34,000

• Derek: $11,000

These drastically varying net prices depend on three key factors:

1. How awesome the student is (from the college’s point of view)

2. How much the student’s family can afford to pay for college
   And sometimes...

3. Where the student lives

Thankfully, colleges do try to give you an idea of what sort of net price you can expect based on these criteria. 

The Net Price Calculator

Every college has a tool appropriately called a “Net Price Calculator” on its website. In theory, these online questionnaires should give you a decent idea of what net price to expect a college to come down to. The quickest way to find an NPC for a particular college is to use the Department of Education’s Net Price Calculator Database found here.

But please don’t do that yet. You need to be equipped for this.

Optional side quest for the eager: If you really, really want a SUPER ballpark net price based only on your family’s income before you read on, you can check out the other Department of Education tool: College Scorecard. 

Look up a college, look under the “Costs” section, and—depending on the college—be prepared to have your mind blown. 

Just make sure you come back. There’s more to know. Like a couple important warnings…

While you are welcome to utilize NPCs at any time, I’d encourage you to hold on to that option for just a moment. Here’s why.

An NPC can be an incredibly helpful tool once you’ve identified one or more schools you definitely want to apply to. However, I find students who finalize their college list and then try to figure out how to make those colleges affordable often end up with some of the worst financial outcomes:

• Getting in to a great school but then having to choose another more affordable, less ideal option

• Taking on tremendous debt at a school they love, but that didn’t show them any financial mercy

• Missing out on amazing and affordable college options that they would have been just as pleased at as the colleges they put so much effort into trying to make financially feasible

In this sense, NPCs aren’t very helpful as there are well over 3,500 colleges in the world. Having you run NPCs for all of them to find the most affordable options would be unreasonable. 

This is why I’ve come up with something far more reasonable and arguably as effective at helping students find colleges that will be both awesome and affordable.

The Financial Fit Quadrant Quiz

How affordable a college is likely to make itself for you comes down to your answers to two very important questions:

1. How awesome are you at school? (Awesome or not awesome)

2. How rich is your family? (Rich or not rich)

Seriously? Isn’t that a bit personal? 

Well, yes, but it’s essentially what the colleges are going to need to know later anyways, so it pays (literally) to talk about this now.

Now you might be thinking, “My GPA is kinda awesome, or My family’s not really rich, but we aren’t poor either.” Colleges know there’s a continuum. For the moment, approximate the answers you think are best and let’s roll with those to assign you a Financial Fit Quadrant.

• If you answered 1) Awesome and 2) Not Rich, you’re in Quadrant #1.

• If you answered 1) Awesome and 2) Rich, you’re in Quadrant #2.

• If you answered 1) Not Awesome and 2) Not Rich, you’re in Quadrant #3.

• If you answered 1) Not Awesome and 2) Rich, you’re in Quadrant #4.

Hold on to your quadrant number. In the next section, you’ll use it to identify which of the five types of colleges are most likely to be the most affordable options for you. 

From there you can rule in and out the types of colleges you’d like to explore and, ideally, end up with an amazing list of colleges that will make themselves affordable for you while also meeting the other criteria (location, size, major options, sports, etc) that you have in mind.

Let’s roll.