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Summary
Summary
Named one of the best books of 2021 by NPR
New York Times Bestseller and a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice pick
"Masterly . . .represents an extraordinary achievement: It is comprehensive and detailed without being tedious, practical without being banal, impeccably well judged and unusually rigorous."--Daniel Markovits, New York Times Book Review
"Ron Lieber is a gift."--Scott Galloway
The hugely popular New York Times Your Money columnist and author of the bestselling The Opposite of Spoiled offers a deeply reported and emotionally honest approach to the biggest financial decision families will ever make: what to pay for college--a decision made even more confusing because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sending a teenager to a flagship state university for four years of on-campus living costs more than $100,000 in many parts of the United States. Meanwhile, many families of freshmen attending selective private colleges will spend triple--over $300,000. With the same passion, smarts, and humor that infuse his personal finance column, Ron Lieber offers a much-needed roadmap to help families navigate this difficult and often confusing journey.
Lieber begins by explaining who pays what and why and how the financial aid system got so complicated. He also pulls the curtain back on merit aid, an entirely new form of discounting that most colleges now use to compete with peers.
While price is essential, value is paramount. So what is worth paying extra for, and how do you know when it exists in abundance at any particular school? Is a small college better than a big one? Who actually does the teaching? Given that every college claims to have reinvented its career center, who should we actually believe? He asks the tough questions of college presidents and financial aid gatekeepers that parents don't know (or are afraid) to ask and summarizes the research about what matters and what doesn't.
Finally, Lieber calmly walks families through the process of setting financial goals, explaining the system to their children and figuring out the right ways to save, borrow, and bargain for a better deal.
The Price You Pay for College gives parents the clarity they need to make informed choices and helps restore the joy and wonder the college experience is supposed to represent.
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
Can you pay for college without being broke until long after retirement? Sure--and this book offers plenty of pointers on how to do so. Today, attending a top-flight school can cost nearly $350,000. Yet, as New York Times financial columnist Lieber asks, pointedly, "what is the return on investment going to be?" There are other questions: Which schools are better at which disciplines? What kind of financial aid is available? Is your child suited for college? One central question, of course, is why higher education is so expensive. The answers are several, ranging from the recent movement of cash-strapped states to reduce or eliminate education funding to the fact that highly educated people--the tenured professors whom students usually encounter only in their junior or senior years--expect to be paid a decent wage, as do the endless layers of administrators and support staff. Lieber counsels that there are remedies available, though not even a committed high school guidance counselor can possibly know how to navigate them all: A student can go to community college to satisfy basic requirements, for example, though he or she better do the homework to be sure all the credits will transfer to their university of choice. A student can join the military and get GI Bill support. However, writes the author, "anyone considering enlisting in the armed forces for financial reasons alone should please think hard about the uncertainty they're signing up for." Perhaps his most important point is that in most instances, college tuition is negotiable and that the worst thing that can happen if you ask for a break is to be told no. But is college worth it? Quite apart from the educational aspect, Lieber holds, the answer to his first question is that the annualized ROI "is about 14 percent." Given that the stock market is typically half that, it's not a bad bet. A revealing and useful guide for the aspiring consumer of higher education. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
"Your Money" columnist for the New York Times, Lieber takes on the knotty issue of what college is really worth now that a flagship state university can cost more than $100,000 for four years of on-campus living, and private colleges much more. First, he explains who pays what, how financial aid got so complicated, and how merit aid has become a new competitive factor among schools. Then he tackles the real question of what a college education is worth, asking questions of college presidents and financial aid gatekeepers that parents are afraid to ask. With a 100,000-copy first printing.
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Chapter I The Price and Cost of College and the Systems Behind It | |
| Chapter 1 Who Pays What and Why the Price Is So High | p. 15 |
| Chapter 2 FAFSA and Its Expected Family Contribution Will Probably Make You Furious; Blame the Federal Government's Great Expectations | p. 23 |
| Chapter 3 How (and Why) Merit Aid Became Mainstream | p. 34 |
| Chapter 4 The Billion-Dollar Consultants Who Are Wooing You | p. 42 |
| Chapter 5 But Wait, Isn't Tuition a Bubble, and All of Higher Education Is Going to Come Apart at the Seams? | p. 57 |
| Chapter II The Unhelpful Feelings You May Feel | |
| Chapter 6 Fear | p. 71 |
| Chapter 7 Guilt | p. 76 |
| Chapter 8 The Pull of Snobbery and Elitism | p. 85 |
| Chapter III Value: Things Worth Paying For | |
| Chapter 9 Classrooms Where Experienced Instructors Have Time to Teach (and Actually Want To) | p. 97 |
| Chapter 10 Schools Where Students Learn (Because Many of Them Don't) HO | |
| Chapter 11 Undergraduate Mental Health Centers That Are Not in Crisis | p. 116 |
| Chapter 12 Peers Worth Friending (or Marrying) | p. 126 |
| Chapter 13 The Special Power of Women's Colleges | p. 136 |
| Chapter 14 Diversity in All Its Forms | p. 140 |
| Chapter 15 How and When Small School Size Matters | p. 149 |
| Chapter 16 Amenities (but Is a Lazy River a Plus?) | p. 160 |
| Chapter 17 Genuinely Reinvented Career Counseling Offices | p. 168 |
| Chapter 18 Places That Create Better Odds When Applying to Grad School | p. 177 |
| Chapter 19 Better Salaries When You Finish-if You Finish | p. 181 |
| Chapter 20 How the College of Wooster Puts It All Together | p. 187 |
| Chapter Iv Money-Saving Hacks That Will Tempt You | |
| Chapter 21 Community College Will Save You Money, but What Might You Lose? | p. 199 |
| Chapter 22 Honors Colleges and Programs Make Bigger Schools Smaller-if You Stick with the Program | p. 207 |
| Chapter 23 Attending College Abroad Is Often Cheaper, but You Won't Get What You Don't Pay For | p. 214 |
| Chapter 24 Athletic Scholarships for the Few (and Probably Not in Full or at Your First-Choice School) | p. 221 |
| Chapter 25 Gap Years: Great, Sometimes Pricey, Might Help You Get a Better Job Someday | p. 225 |
| Chapter 26 Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard: Decent Money, Big Responsibility | p. 230 |
| Chapter 27 Skipping College Is Probably Not a Great Idea | p. 233 |
| Chapter V The Plans: Saving, Talking, Touring, Bargaining, and Borrowing | |
| Chapter 28 How to Make the Big Financial Plan | p. 243 |
| Chapter 29 How to Have the College Money Talk with Your Child | p. 252 |
| Chapter 30 All Your Questions About Saving for College and 529 Plans | p. 260 |
| Chapter 31 How to Shop for College (and Where to Find the Juicy Merit Aid Data) | p. 274 |
| Chapter 32 When (and How) to Hire an Independent College Counselor or Financial Planner | p. 287 |
| Chapter 33 How to Appeal Your Financial Aid Award | p. 293 |
| Chapter 34 All the Student Loan Basics in One Tidy Place | p. 302 |
| Chapter 35 One More Feeling: Hope | p. 312 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 317 |
| Notes | p. 323 |
| Bibliography | p. 341 |
| Index | p. 345 |
