For families with a rising high school senior, this is the home stretch of the college search. Back-to-school season brings final campus visits, revamped lists and conversations that get more real each week.
When researching private colleges, more families are running into numbers they didn’t expect: $65,000, $80,000, even $100,000 (paywall) for one year at a private college. At this price tag, the question I hear most is: “How is anyone supposed to afford it?” For too many families, even the idea of a private college becomes a non-starter.
I’ve spent my career in college financing, and ruling out a college based on its sticker versus net price is the most common mistake I see families make every application season. Private college is expensive; there is no denying that. The published price and the price a family pays are two different numbers, though, and the gap between them has been widening in families’ favor.
Here is what the data shows, laid out in three myths and three facts:
Myth 1: Families always pay the full sticker price.
Fact: Net price has been falling, not rising, for six years and counting.
The College Board’s annual Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid report put the published cost of attendance at a private college above $65,000 for the first time in 2025-2026. This is the new national average, well below the $100K-plus figure making all the headlines.
Even at $65,000, this is not the price the average family pays for private college. The same report shows that after aid, the average net price for tuition and fees for a first-time, full-time student at a private, nonprofit college was $16,910 in 2025-2026, which is actually less than the average of $19,810 in 2006-2007 when adjusted for inflation.
Dr. Phil Levine, an economist at Wellesley College and expert on college pricing, found the same pattern over a shorter window. In his analysis, Levine tracked six years of net price calculator data from 2019/20-2025/26, at a consistent sample of 200 four-year colleges and universities. Net prices were calculated for four representative families at approximately the 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th income percentiles. His data shows that, across the representative sample of 200 colleges, inflation-adjusted college costs have generally become more affordable since 2019.
Myth 2: Scholarships only go to families with financial need.
Fact: Merit aid is standard practice at many private colleges. The exception explains where the scary headlines come from.
The reason most families pay less than the published price is discounting—institutional grants and scholarships colleges award off their own tuition revenue. Over the past two decades, more colleges, especially private colleges, have used discounting to help reduce the cost burden.
Levine’s April 2026 Brookings analysis sorted institutions by endowment size and found that roughly two-thirds of smaller-endowment schools extend merit aid broadly to students without demonstrated need. Larger-endowment schools do the same for close to half. Families who assume their income disqualifies them are increasingly seeing merit scholarships show up in their financial aid offers.
So where do the $100,000 headlines come from? A small, specific group of highly selective colleges with very large endowments, where demand for seats remains high and discount rates stay low.
Myth 3: If savings fall short, families can always borrow the rest.
Fact: That safety net just got smaller, and borrowing comes with added costs.
Families cover the bill with some mix of savings, current income and borrowing when needed. Sallie Mae’s annual How America Pays for College survey shows the share covered by parent savings has been declining in recent years, offset by rising student borrowing.
Two things must be considered before leaning on loans. First, borrowing for college means additional future costs. Second, the options for some parents have gotten smaller.
Recent legislative changes have imposed limits on Parent PLUS loans, capped at $20,000/year, $65,000 lifetime per student. The families most affected by the new cap tend to be the ones who were borrowing the most in the first place, often to cover a higher-cost school. For them, a financing option now has a limit that makes saving early, even in small amounts, a stronger move than it’s been in years.
What can families do about it?
The confusion is not lost on colleges. More than 700 colleges have adopted the College Cost Transparency Initiative’s standardized aid-offer format, so families can compare real costs across schools in the same terms. A handful are piloting early cost estimates instead of making families wait until after acceptance; some are locking tuition rates for all four years at enrollment.
From a financial planning perspective, the best thing families can do is save. Any amount helps, and a 529 plan can be a useful tool for building those savings.
Here are five things worth doing this fall.
1. Don’t build or narrow down a list based on sticker price alone. Use the net price calculator every college is required to publish.
2. When speaking with a college, ask specifically about merit aid, not just need-based aid.
3. Start saving early, even in small amounts.
4. Understand the new federal borrowing limits now so they aren’t a surprise senior year.
5. Look at the full four-year cost, don’t just focus on year one.
The sticker price is the number every college is required to publish. It’s rarely the number that describes what most private colleges cost, and it’s almost never the number a family will pay. It’s also not the full picture.
Smaller classes, closer advising, a network that follows a graduate for decades; that’s the case private colleges actually make once a family gets close enough to hear it. Sticker shock shouldn’t be the reason they don’t.
This article is republished with permission from Forbes.
