Archived Information

How People Manage to Pay for College

The tables that follow should give you an idea of how people pay for college. There are seven sets of tables, according to the seven categories of colleges in this handbook. Within each set of tables, you will find financial aid and college price information based on the experiences of students whose families' income levels differ.

These figures are not price quotes. The actual price of attending college depends on many factors. You will not know exactly what your first year of college will cost until you apply to a college and are accepted, apply for and receive a financial aid offer from that college, and decide how much of any loan or work-study aid to accept.

OTHER WAYS FAMILIES MANAGE THE PRICE OF COLLEGE

Financial aid is only part of the college financing strategies students and their families use to pay for college. There are a number of other ways families manage to pay:

Savings for college beginning early in a child's life;
Contributions from parent's current income;
Contributions from student's summer or school-year employment;
Parent borrowing, such as mortgage loans, bank loans;
Tuition payment plans;
Reducing the total price of attending college by living at home;
Acquiring some of the credits toward a 4-year degree at less expensive community colleges;
Explore accelerated degree programs (e.g., 3-year Bachelor's Degree); and
Getting a head start on college while still in high school by taking Advanced Placement courses.

Remember this handbook shows how students paid for college, given the choices they had. Some students decided not to apply for financial aid. And not all students were willing to borrow to finance their college education. The tables do not show what aid students might have been offered or taken; they show how students and their families actually financed college in a recent (1995-96) academic year.⁸