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‘Sticker price’ is rising, but not ‘net price’
The “net price” of attending college is declining across the country, according to a new study by a Wellesley College economist.
Phillip Levine conducted a study for the Brookings Institution, using publicly available data as well as information he has through his own company, the MyinTuition Corp. He also spoke to The College Fix about his findings.
He found that although the “sticker price” of college is following the trends of inflation, so are endowments and financial aid, resulting in the decline of net prices.
His team compared the 2019-2020 school year to the 2025-26 school year and concluded students and both public and private institutions likely saw a decrease in their net price.
A family with an income of $140,000 who sent their child to a flagship public campus paid about five percent less for college this year than they would have in the 2019-20 school year.
Poorer families at private universities with large endowments have also seen a massive decrease in their net price. A family making $85,000 paid 30.8 percent less for college this year than six years prior, the Brookings study found.
Levine told The Fix that he would recommend everyone consider higher education, given the decreasing cost.
He also gave further insights on why some people believe college tuition is increasing.
“What is rising in college pricing is the sticker price, which is the price you will pay if you receive no financial aid,” he said. “Once financial aid is factored in, prices are falling for most people.”
“References to skyrocketing college costs are only found in the media and it is incorrect,” he said.
An economist at the Cato Institute said the findings are “more than plausible and actually probable,” although he said there are stronger research tools than what Levine used.
During a phone interview, Andrew Gillen told The Fix he recommends older, more trusted sources such as The College Board, which puts out an annual report every year titled, Trends in College Pricing.
Gillen said The College Board’s results match with Mr. Levine’s, showing that there does seem to be a decline in the net price of college tuition within the past five years.
“This is undeniably good news for students,” he told The Fix. “For decades prices have just been increasing and increasing and now they’re not, so that’s undeniably good news”
Still, he said “we’re not done yet,” when it comes to the cost of college.
“For decades college tuition has just relentlessly kept going up, and up, and up,” he told The Fix.
“College affordability isn’t getting worse right now, and in some instances it might even be getting better, but that doesn’t mean we’re in a good spot,” he said.
Gillen has previously testified in front of the U.S. Senate about the need for a standardized calculation of net price.
“While Congress has required every college to post a net price calculator for years now, this has not had the desired effect, in part because the calculations use different formulas and are typically not comparable across colleges,” he said in Sep. 2025.
He said there should be a “universal formula” along with each “college’s calculations” so there can be “comparison across colleges.”
Levine too has criticized the transparency of college costs, writing a book in 2022 about this issue.
