Top 10 colleges where aid cuts sticker price to $10,787

With some colleges now charging more than $100,000 a year, cost remains the single biggest barrier to entry for prospective students, recent studies show. Families seldom pay the sticker price. Students and their parents spent closer to $35,000 on average on college costs–tuition, fees, books, room and board, technology and other expenses–during the 2025-26 academic year, according to Sallie Mae's How America Pays for College report. In most cases, families tap savings and cobble together other resources, including scholarships, second jobs, and federal or private student loans.

Of all possible sources, merit aid is an underutilized resource, said Robert Franek, editor-in-chief at The Princeton Review. Beyond federal assistance from the U.S. Department of Education and state aid, many schools are increasingly offering students more scholarship funds. These are grants, money that students don't have to pay back. "That is significant," Franek said.

Between the 2014-15 and 2024-25 academic years, institutional grant aid rose by 24% to $85.1 billion. During 2024-25, institutional money accounted for about half of all grant aid for undergraduate and graduate students, according to the College Board, which tracks pricing and student aid trends.

Financial aid is increasingly influencing college decisions. Nearly 89% of students said they would have chosen a different college for more scholarship aid, according to a report by education software company Ellucian, based on a survey of more than 2,000 current and prospective college students in the U.S.