Across 2,743 US colleges with enough students to compare, the median student pays 45% less than the published cost of attendance — about $7,850 a year less. The discount ranges from 5% to over 90%, which makes the advertised figure close to useless for deciding where to apply.
Take any two of these colleges at random. 12% of the time, the one with the lower advertised price is the one that actually costs more once grants and scholarships are counted. Not occasionally — roughly one comparison in eight.
In New Jersey, Stevens Institute of Technology advertises $73,570 and students pay $38,104. Princeton University advertises $78,490 — $4,920 more — and students pay $8,143, which is $29,961 less a year. A family comparing the two advertised figures would pick the wrong one.
Advertised price and real price are correlated overall. The problem is not that the sticker is random; it is that the discount varies so widely between schools that the sticker cannot tell a family which of two colleges will cost them less.
These are the fifteen colleges with 1,000 or more undergraduates where the published price and the average amount students actually pay diverge most.
| School | Advertised | Actually paid | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Princeton UniversityPrinceton, NJ | $78,490 | $8,143 | −$70,34790% off |
| Stanford UniversityStanford, CA | $78,898 | $10,851 | −$68,04786% off |
| Yale UniversityNew Haven, CT | $82,170 | $18,535 | −$63,63577% off |
| University of ChicagoChicago, IL | $84,126 | $20,531 | −$63,59576% off |
| Colby CollegeWaterville, ME | $78,665 | $16,507 | −$62,15879% off |
| Harvard UniversityCambridge, MA | $81,292 | $19,500 | −$61,79276% off |
| Washington University in St LouisSaint Louis, MO | $81,620 | $20,768 | −$60,85275% off |
| Haverford CollegeHaverford, PA | $81,420 | $21,464 | −$59,95674% off |
| Pomona CollegeClaremont, CA | $77,810 | $18,084 | −$59,72677% off |
| Claremont McKenna CollegeClaremont, CA | $78,723 | $19,489 | −$59,23475% off |
| Columbia University in the City of New YorkNew York, NY | $82,617 | $23,497 | −$59,12072% off |
| Northwestern UniversityEvanston, IL | $83,803 | $25,057 | −$58,74670% off |
| Vanderbilt UniversityNashville, TN | $79,538 | $20,917 | −$58,62174% off |
| Wellesley CollegeWellesley, MA | $81,090 | $23,052 | −$58,03872% off |
| Grinnell CollegeGrinnell, IA | $75,698 | $17,772 | −$57,92677% off |
And the ten where it is nearly accurate — mostly for-profit and specialist career colleges, which tend to discount least.
| School | Advertised | Actually paid | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joyce University of Nursing and Health SciencesDraper, UT | $32,259 | $30,704 | −$1,5555% off |
| Howard UniversityWashington, DC | $48,214 | $45,180 | −$3,0346% off |
| Blinn College DistrictBrenham, TX | $19,080 | $17,703 | −$1,3777% off |
| Unitek CollegeFremont, CA | $36,431 | $33,643 | −$2,7888% off |
| University of Massachusetts GlobalIrvine, CA | $35,619 | $32,849 | −$2,7708% off |
| West Coast University-OntarioOntario, CA | $47,991 | $43,869 | −$4,1229% off |
| Carrington College-SacramentoSacramento, CA | $40,908 | $37,342 | −$3,5669% off |
| Arizona College of Nursing-TempeTempe, AZ | $35,080 | $31,894 | −$3,1869% off |
| CBD CollegeLos Angeles, CA | $22,242 | $20,182 | −$2,0609% off |
| Pennsylvania College of Health SciencesLancaster, PA | $38,576 | $34,944 | −$3,6329% off |
Do not rule a college out on its advertised price, and do not assume a cheap-looking one will be cheap. Every US college is required by law to publish a net price calculator; run it for each school on your list, then confirm in writing with the financial aid office. The figures here are historical averages across all students — no student pays the average, and what you are charged depends on your family's finances, your record and the year you apply.
Compare any US college's advertised and actual cost →
US Department of Education College Scorecard and IPEDS, 2022–23 — the most recent year published. "Advertised" is the total published cost of attendance; "actually paid" is the average net price after grants and scholarships. Limited to the 2,743 institutions with 500 or more undergraduates that report both figures. The one-in-eight comparison is from 200,000 random pairs drawn from that set with a fixed seed, so it is reproducible. Free to cite or reproduce with a link to this page.
Nothing on this page is a price quote, and no student pays the average. Every figure here is a historical average across all students at a school. What you are actually charged will differ, often by a lot, and depends on your family's income and assets, your academic record, any merit or athletic scholarship you are offered, the program you enroll in, whether you live on campus, your residency status, and the year you apply. Aid policies change from year to year, and two students at the same college in the same year routinely pay very different amounts.
Use these numbers to decide which colleges are worth investigating — never to decide what one will cost you. Every US college is required by law to publish a net price calculator; run it for each school on your list, then confirm the figures in writing with that college's financial aid office before you make any decision or sign anything. Where our figures and a college's own differ, the college is right and we are out of date.
We are not financial, admissions or tax advisers, we have no relationship with any college listed here, and we receive nothing from any of them.