The BIG MYTH About Public Colleges

Hey, guys! It’s Eric at Solution Prep, and if you know me, you know that making college affordable for students and families is something I focus a lot of my time on. But today I want to dispel a myth about college affordability, and it has to do with public colleges.

Public colleges and universities are funded, in part, by their state governments; which means the tax dollars of the people who live in that state. That’s why you’ll see lower instate tuition, and higher out-of-state tuition, because those tax dollars are supposed to benefit the children of the taxpayers footing that difference.

As attractive as that may sound, public instate colleges aren’t as affordable as they once were. The University of California schools were tuition free for instaters until 1968, but as of this recording, their instate tuition is over $113,000 a year. When my mom started at Rutgers — the flagship public university of New Jersey — she paid just $400 a semester. Even adjusted for inflation, that tuition is now triple what it was back then.

So this idea a lot of parents have, parents who went to college maybe 20, 30, or 40 years ago, that instate public colleges are the only or most affordable option isn’t necessarily true anymore.

There are a lot of culprits for the rising cost of college, but when it comes to public universities a big one is how much states have reduced the funding they provide. Most notably since the great recession in 2008, when so many states decided to plug their budget holes by reducing contributions to their public colleges.

The former president of LSU said in 2016 that in just a few short years their funding model shifted from 70%/30% — with the state paying the lion’s share of instate students’ tuition to 20%/80% — with the majority of the cost being passed along to students and parents.

While out-of-state public colleges and private universities may have higher sticker prices, you may be able to get them for the same cost or even less than you’d pay for a public college education in your own state.

One tool you can use to find out is the net price calculator on each college’s website. You can plug in things like your income and assets, and it will estimate how much need-based gift aid you may qualify for.

You can also dig through a college’s website to learn more about what merit scholarships they offer because some have clear scholarship brackets for students with specific grades, and specific SAT or ACT scores.

Beyond that you can dig through a college’s common data set and look for Table H2 to get an idea of what percent of the students who apply for financial aid get some, and the average need-based gift aid as well as what percent of students are getting non need-based scholarships and the average amount of those scholarships.

Now, none of this is a guarantee that you’ll get all or any of those dollars, and of course, you have to get accepted first. But it’s a really good place to start when figuring out whether a college might be affordable beyond just looking at the price tag.

There are also smart choices students can make, like being an RA to get free or discounted dorms, commuting to college if it’s close enough, or starting off at their local county college.

You could even shave a year off college through a combination of entering with AP, IB, or dual enrollment credits and loading up on the maximum credits per semester while you’re there.

I’ve had plenty of students go to private and out-of-state public universities at a much lower final price tag than they were offered by their public instate schools.

Maybe — most importantly — parents need to have candid conversations with their students about their budget, about what they can actually afford. So yes, maybe let your student apply to some colleges with sticker prices beyond that budget but with the caveat that if the scholarships and the aid don’t come through as you’d hoped, they’ll pick one of the offers from colleges that won’t saddle the student or parents with a lifetime of debt.

So start researching, keep an open mind, make smart choices, and if you have questions call us at 732-556-8220. We are here to help.