Do Parents and Teens Overestimate College Costs?
Many of you have heard this statistic released by the U.S. Census Bureau: on average, college grads earn $1 million more in a lifetime than students who only have a high school diploma. But just because college grads can earn a million doesn’t mean you have to pay a million to get your child a degree.
While I doubt any of you expect to spend a million dollars on your children’s schooling (at least not if you have a current high schooler), I think you might be surprised to learn that many parents are overestimating the cost of college. According to a recent press release from Business Wire, a Upromise report shows that the average family overestimates the price of college tuition and fees by over 4 times for public schools, and by more than double for private schools.
What do you think the average tuition and fees run for a 4-year public college? What about a private college?
The average parent in the Upromise report expected to pay $25,155 per year in college tuition and fees for a public school (the actual average is only $5,836) and $46,712 per year for private schools (as opposed to the actual average of $22,218).
Unfortunately, this overestimation of costs seems to be working against parents—rather than saving more, they seem to be so disconcerted by the price of college that many are throwing their hands up in frustration and saving little or even no money for college.
Want to find out what it really costs to attend a college? Just head over to the college’s website. Most colleges will list the “estimated cost of attendance” or ETA, which includes the cost of tuition, fees, and other expenses like housing, food, books and supplies and transportation.
Once you have the real numbers, you can begin planning on how you can knock down your out-of-pocket costs.
All the best,
Deborah Fox
Deborah Fox is the founder of Fox College Funding, a nationwide company that helps families find creative ways to reduce their college costs.
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