When families start building a college list, the first number they usually see is the sticker price — tuition, fees, and room and board listed on the school's website. At many private universities, this number tops $75,000 per year.
That number is almost meaningless for most families.
The number that actually matters is net price — what your family will pay after grants and scholarships are applied. For a family earning $65,000 per year, the net price at an expensive private university can be lower than at a public school with a lower sticker price.
What is net price?
Net price is the cost of attendance (tuition + fees + room + board + books) minus all grant aid and scholarships that don't need to be repaid. It does not subtract loans — because loans still have to be paid back.
The U.S. Department of Education requires every college to report average net price by family income bracket. This data is publicly available through the College Scorecard and is what DecideMyCampus uses on every school profile.
Why sticker price is misleading
Here's a real example using federal data. A well-known private liberal arts college lists a sticker price of $72,000/year. But for families earning between $30,000 and $48,000 per year, the average net price is under $8,000. That's less than many state schools.
Meanwhile, a regional public university might have a sticker price of $28,000 — and a net price of $22,000 for the same family, because the school offers less grant aid.
This is counterintuitive but extremely common. The schools with the highest sticker prices often have the largest endowments and the most generous financial aid programs.
How to actually compare net prices
The cleanest way to compare real costs across schools:
1. Use net price calculators. Every college is required to have one on their website. They take 5–10 minutes and give you a personalized estimate based on your family's income, assets, and student profile. This is the most accurate number.
2. Use federal averages as a starting point. The College Scorecard publishes average net price broken down by five income brackets. This won't match your family exactly, but it tells you whether a school is generous or stingy with aid in general.
3. Compare schools at the same income level. Don't compare School A's net price for $40k families to School B's net price for $80k families. Use the same income bracket across all schools on your list.
4. Account for in-state vs. out-of-state. Public universities charge dramatically different tuition for non-residents — often $15,000–$25,000 more per year. If you're comparing a flagship public school out-of-state to a private school, the private school's net price may actually be lower.
What DecideMyCampus shows you
On every school profile at DecideMyCampus, we show two cost figures side by side:
- Net price: the federal average after grants, for aid recipients
- Full cost of attendance: the sticker price before any aid
We also show in-state and out-of-state tuition separately, so you're always comparing apples to apples.
When you use the search tool and filter by cost, we rank schools by net price — not sticker price — so the most genuinely affordable options rise to the top.
The bottom line
Building a college list based on sticker price means leaving money on the table. Families who do the extra step of checking net prices — either through DecideMyCampus or through individual school net price calculators — routinely find that their "dream school" is more affordable than they assumed, and their "safety school" would have cost more.
Start with net price. Build your list from there.