“Colleges and universities that participate in federal student aid programs have been required to publish a net price calculator (NPC) since 2011. These calculators provide institution-specific estimates of what students are likely to pay, based on family income, assets, and other information…
Since 2019, research teams I organized have collected net prices using these calculators for a consistent sample of four-year colleges and universities. Institutions are grouped into private nonprofit and public sectors. Private institutions are further separated into those with larger and smaller endowments per student, while public institutions are divided between state flagship or research-intensive (‘R1’) campuses and more regionally focused institutions.
From each category, 50 institutions were randomly selected, yielding a total sample of 200 colleges and universities. The 50 private, well-endowed institutions have been further subdivided to distinguish between those with endowments exceeding $500,000 per full-time equivalent (FTE) student from those with endowments between $100,000 and $500,000 per FTE. Among the selected institutions, 15 are in the former group and 35 are in the latter. Universities in this category with more than 3,000 tuition-paying students are subject to the significantly increased endowment tax introduced as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted last summer.
At each institution, NPC estimates were generated for students from four hypothetical families with different financial circumstances. Income and asset levels correspond to the 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles of the distribution for families with children approaching college age observed in the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, updated for inflation over time. These income levels correspond to approximately $45,000, $85,000, $140,000, and $250,000 in today’s dollars. In addition to reporting net prices for each scenario, the analysis also presents the full published cost of attendance (the ‘sticker price’), which continues to receive outsized attention even though few students pay that amount.
Tables 1A–E and Figures 1A–1E present the results for each category of institution. Net prices for all income groups are lower in 2025–26 than they were six years earlier, and the full cost of attendance has declined as well. That is, sticker prices have not kept pace with inflation. While there are some minor year-to-year differences across income groups, the overall patterns are clear. For students at the 25th percentile of the income distribution (incomes below about $45,000) prices have fallen almost continuously and are now roughly 15–30% lower than in 2019–20.”
From Brookings.
