Students getting into college is now publicly celebrated every spring across social media on college decision day.
But when it comes to figuring out how to pay for it, and calculating what college will actually cost — that part is much less fun.
A new survey released this month by the Strada Education Foundation found nearly 70% of college students struggle to calculate the true cost of attendance. Only 32% of students and parents said the financial aid process was “straightforward,” or that their college made it easy to understand the final price tag.
Some colleges are trying to change that. Facing an enrollment cliff, growing public skepticism about the value of a degree, and intensifying competition for a shrinking pool of applicants, colleges are increasingly treating affordability as a recruitment strategy. Some schools are simplifying financial aid offers. Others are locking in tuition rates. The goal? Rebuild trust by making college costs easier to understand.
For the past few years, McGill University in Montreal has offered guaranteed tuition, meaning students pay the same rate from freshman year through graduation. What you pay when you start won’t rise before you finish. (For American families favorable the exchange rate in Canada helps, too).
“By eliminating the unpredictability of year‐over‐year increases and making it easier to plan ahead, students know the total cost of tuition for their degree program before committing to McGill,” said McGill spokesperson Katherine Cuplinskas.
A handful of U.S. public universities now offer similar models, including Purdue University in Indiana, Oklahoma State and UNC Greensboro.
But guaranteed tuition remains rare, particularly among private colleges balancing tight budgets. But even among private schools, that’s beginning to change, said Wellesley College economist Phillip Levine.
“I wouldn’t say it’s super-common, but it falls into the category of marketing strategies that schools are using and trying to do a better job of communicating affordability,” said Levine, who developed MyinTuition in 2013 to help students and families estimate college costs.
This month, the College Board acquired the program, a move Levine hopes will expand access for millions of prospective students.
The appeal of fixed tuition is understandably attractive to parents. Colleges have long made pricing opaque, and sticker prices often bear little resemblance to what families ultimately pay. A locked-in rate offers at least some certainty for financial planning for four, five or six year — however long it takes to graduate.
But does it actually reduce costs?
“If you’re going to fix someone’s tuition for the next four years, that’s great if you happen to be one of the students who’s paying the full tuition because then you know for sure your tuition is not going up,” Levine said.
But the pricing picture gets murkier for those families receiving financial aid. That includes most families.
For years, colleges resisted congressional efforts to standardize financial aid letters and make offers easier to compare, even as polls showed two-thirds of voters question whether college is worth the price. Tuition increases typically outpace inflation and student debt has burdened generations of borrowers.
The confusion became such a gaping issue that higher education leaders launched an effort to patch it all up.
“This has been a nagging problem,” said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, which represents colleges in Washington and runs the College Cost Transparency Initiative.
So far, more than 700 colleges and universities have signed on to use a single, simplified financial aid offer.
Mitchell said national debates over declining trust in higher education often focus on campus politics, curriculum battles or faculty viewpoints. But, he argued, that misses a broader point.
“The plumbing is really where most families lose their trust,” Mitchell said. “So if I get an offer letter from a college, and it doesn’t differentiate between loan and grant, I’ve got a right to be upset.”
“This is not rocket science,” he added. “It’s just basic transparency and honesty.”
One institution participating in the initiative is Brandeis University in Waltham. The university is also testing a new AI-powered tool that estimates a student’s likely bill based on academic and financial information.
“What we’re trying to do is help families understand what their actual cost will be,” said Jen Walker, vice president for enrollment management at Brandeis.
Walker said families traditionally don’t get that level of economic clarity until late in the admissions process — after applying, being accepted and sometimes even after choosing a college.
Asked what took so long, Walker said administrators once doubted the technology could deliver.
“We were skeptical,” she said. “The reason financial aid is confusing is financial aid is confusing.”
But as colleges face enrollment declines, cost transparency is emerging as one way to rebuild public trust, and attract and retain those students still choosing higher education.
For more information about tuition transparency, listen to GBH’s podcast “College Uncovered”: Bait and Switch.
