The largest number on a college website is rarely the number a family should use to compare schools.

Sticker price is the published cost before financial aid. It usually combines tuition and fees, housing and food, books, transportation, and personal expenses. Net price subtracts grants and scholarships—aid that generally does not need to be repaid—from that total.

Published cost−grants and scholarships=net price

Why sticker price can mislead

Two colleges with similar published prices can offer very different grant aid. A private nonprofit college with substantial institutional aid may have a lower net price than a public option with a lower sticker price. The reverse can also be true. You cannot know from the headline tuition alone.

CampusWorth shows average net price when the College Scorecard reports it. That figure is a useful screening measure, but it is not a personalized quote. Your result can change with household income, assets, residency, living arrangement, enrollment status, and the college’s own aid policies.

Use three cost numbers, not one

  1. Estimated total cost of attendance. Include indirect costs such as books, transportation, and personal expenses.
  2. Personalized net price. Use each college’s official net price calculator and the family’s current financial information.
  3. Remaining gap. Subtract grants, scholarships, savings, affordable cash flow, work, and confirmed federal aid from the estimated total cost.
A loan is not a discount.

Financial aid offers may list loans beside grants. Separate money that reduces price from money that must be repaid.

Compare like with like

Use the same living arrangement and academic year for every school. Confirm whether the offer is renewable and what academic performance is required. If a scholarship covers freshman year only, do not treat it as a four-year award. If the college assumes a work-study amount, remember that the student must earn that money over time.

Also ask what could rise. Tuition, housing, fees, travel, and health-insurance costs may change. A four-year projection does not need to predict perfectly; it needs to expose whether the plan still works if costs increase or aid changes.

A practical comparison order

  1. Build a broad list based on academic, personal, and campus fit.
  2. Compare average net price to identify questions—not winners.
  3. Run each school’s official net price calculator.
  4. Review the actual aid offer and separate grants, work, and loans.
  5. Project all years needed to graduate.
  6. Compare the remaining gap with the family’s borrowing limit.

Primary references: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard and Federal Student Aid guidance on comparing aid offers. College data on CampusWorth should be confirmed with the institution.