The secret economics of maximizing college financial aid (and why it's not as miserable as you think).
In the college admissions process, a terrifying unknown looms large: How much is this really going to cost? For prospective students and their families, there's no easy answer. While college prices continue to rise, so do their promises of financial aid for qualified students. But who qualifies? And for how much? How can this monumental life decision be so utterly impossible to understand?
HiddenTuition is an insider's guide for navigating college financial aid to maximum effect and with (relatively) minimal pain. Economist and financial-aid expert Phillip B. Levine draws on his unique experience-including years of research in higher-education finance and work alongside admissions and financial-aid departments-to help readers first identify, then minimize, what they'll actually pay for different types of colleges based on their circumstances. With expertise, clarity, and the warmth of someone who's been through it, Levine details how students can find the hidden tuition costs in the opaque landscape of college pricing and financial aid. He explores topics that include:
- Why college's "sticker prices" are rarely what students pay-and how some actual prices are even going down
- The best, worst, and most surprising deals for students with different financial resources
- How to navigate financial aid for divorced and multi-residence households
- Who really benefits from early decision
- How the nature of scholarships and merit-based aid is often framed in misleading ways
- The pros and cons of college savings accounts
- When and how to get started on college financing
- Why all student loans aren't the same (or aren't all that bad)
Debunking common myths and offering practical guidance for both families and individual students, Hidden Tuition makes a maddeningly imperfect process more manageable-and gives students a clearer path through one of life's biggest financial decisions towards collegiate success.
Table of Contents:
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION: The Black Box
CHAPTER 1: The Big Picture
About Language and Philosophy
What Is Financial Aid?
Why Can’t Everyone Pay the Same Price?
Why Else Do Different People Pay Different Prices?
Statistics
How Many Students Pay the Sticker Price?
How Much Do Students Pay?
Are College Prices Really Skyrocketing?
How Do Students Pay the Prices They Are Charged?
Economics and Finance
Why Are College Prices Set That Way?
Why Do Colleges Charge So Much?
Isn’t the High Cost of College Related to Wasteful Spending?
Is College Worth It?
CHAPTER 2: The Details
The Application Form
How Does One Apply for Financial Aid?
What Do Colleges Do with All That Data?
What Was FAFSA Simplification?
What Happens If You Live with a Single Parent, or If Your Parents Are Divorced?
Types of Aid
What Are the Different Types of Need-Based Financial Aid?
What About Loans as a Form of Financial Aid?
What Is Merit-Based Aid?
What Is the Net Price, and How Is It Determined?
How Is All of This Reported in a Financial Aid Award Letter?
College Financial Aid Strategies
How Do Colleges Decide What Forms of Financial Aid to Offer?
What Do Colleges Mean When They Say They Are Need-Blind or Meet Full Need?
How Do Colleges Determine How Much Institutional Grant Aid to Award?
Forecasting Your Costs
How Can You Know How Much You Have to Pay Before You Apply to College?
How Will Your Costs Change During the Time You Are Enrolled?
CHAPTER 3: The Strategy
College Cost and College Choice
Should College Decisions Be Based on Which Schools Offer the Most Financial Aid?
Are Public Institutions the Only Affordable Options?
Does It Always Make Sense to Choose the Less Expensive Institution?
Does It Make Sense to Go to a Community College for Two Years and Then Transfer?
Is It Better to Apply Early Decision?
Should You Apply for Financial Aid at a Need-Aware School?
Does It Make Sense to Major Only in Business or STEM Fields?
Rearranging Your Finances to Generate More Financial Aid
Should You Save Money in a College Account or a Retirement Account?
Taking Financial Aid into Account, Is It Better to Invest in Your Own Home or in Other Forms of Assets?
Is It Better to Hold Assets in an Account Owned by the Parent or the Student?
When Is a Gap Year a Good Idea?
Other Ways to Help Make College Affordable
How Much Can Outside Scholarships Help?
Will Taking AP / Community-College Classes Help Reduce the Cost?
Will It Matter If the Student’s Grandparents Want to Help Pay the Bill?
Are There Tax Breaks That Help Make College More Affordable?
Borrowing and Saving
Does It Make Sense for Students to Borrow to Go to College?
What Options Do Students Have in Borrowing?
What Are the Available Student Loan Repayment Options?
What Options Do Parents Have to Borrow?
Should You Invest in a 529 Plan?
What If You Want to Go to Graduate School?
CHAPTER 4: The Fixes (?)
College Affordability
Why Is It So Hard to Make College More Affordable?
Why Can’t Colleges Spend Less?
Shouldn’t College Be Free?
Would More Competition Help?
How Do Other Countries Deal with the Problem of Affordability?
Student Loans
Does the Borrowing System Help Students?
How Serious Is the Student Debt Problem, and Can We Solve It?
Price Transparency
When Will You Know What You Need to Know About Price?
Can We Make Prices More Transparent?
Will It Help to Make Prices More Transparent?
CHAPTER 5: How to Navigate an Imperfect System
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX
About the Author :
Phillip B. Levine is the Katharine Coman and A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Economics at Wellesley College. He is author of A Problem of Fit: How the Complexity of College Pricing Hurts Students—and Universities. He has contributed to TheNew York Times, TheWashington Post, TheBoston Globe, Time, and Slate, and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, ABC News Nightline, and NPR’s All Things Considered.
Review :
“Hidden Tuition is a must read for students, families, and college counselors who want to know what it is going to cost to go to college. It just shouldn’t be that hard to find out, but it is. This book helps cut through all the jargon to answer this question, and does it with both clarity and humor, a significant challenge when talking about financial aid.”
“Levine has spent years helping students and families make sense of college pricing and financial aid, both through his research and through tools like MyinTuition that put real numbers in front of real families. Hidden Tuition builds on that by demystifying the college pricing system, which too often confuses families, especially those who need it most. A useful book, written with clarity and care.”
"I've spent years helping families navigate college admissions, but Hidden Tuition made me rethink how I explain the money side of it. Levine has done what no one else could: turned an economist's brain into a parent's handbook. I'll never talk about college pricing the same way again."
