The Price You Pay for College: An Entirely New Road Map for the Biggest Financial Decision Your Family Will Ever Make

by Ron Lieber

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Parenting, Education, College, Finance, Personal Finance, Economics

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 26, 2021

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thorough and comprehensive advice/guide book that goes well beyond the financial aspects of paying for college. I'd put it in the Essential Reading category for the quality and depth of the material.

The book is organized thematically in parts and the chapters largely stand on their own. Sections that aren't pertinent can be skimmed or skipped without diminishing the reading experience (I read everything).

The book is aimed at parents (of sophomores or freshmen, ideally) but students would benefit from it too.

Beyond the generic descriptors above I found the author to be irritating on occasion. A graduate of Amherst College, he gave off a whiff of elitism every now and then. The tier 1/most selective schools were generally treated with reverence while the public flagships sounded like consolation prizes. He doesn't even condescend to mention non-flagship publics. (Why do they even exist? The horror!)

Every now and then the author presents a suggested script for talking though potentially thorny issues. It seems well-intentioned and may be useful to some but I was put off by the patronizing man splaining essence he projected.

Odds & ends:
* Be prepared to read a few times that Northeastern University, Tulane and the University of Southern California were once safety schools that burnished their reputations by clever use of merit money and gaming their statistics to climb the ranks of U.S. News & World Reports (i.e. they're the noveau riche of American colleges, they don't really belong with the true blue bloods).
* Speaking of USN&WR just skip it entirely, their rankings are meaningless. [That's my assertion, not the author's.]
* Not mentioned by the author but if you're looking to see how much merit aid schools are doling out check out www.collegeconfidential.com Go to the link for the schools of interest and look for any threads entitled "class of 20xx" and see what people are saying. People commonly list merit awards along with their stats and if it's a public (eek!) school whether they're in state or out of state.
* Also not mentioned by the author www.niche.com and sub/reddit pages for schools of interest are great sources of information about the pluses and minuses as perceived by students and parents.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still just partway through but I want to record that I have grown increasingly irritated with this book. It starts out promising, and very on-topic regarding the financial investment of college and a high-level view of how institutions handle costs and aid. Then it sort of deteriorates into a series of discrete chapters, each full of wonky stats and lists of colleges that are the "best" at various random data points. The author hammers again and again that parents should just ask the colleges all of these detailed questions that nobody who isn't a journalist or an academic researcher would really ask. Not to mention, the obsessive nature of the focus on parents as consumers leaves a bad taste in my mouth, as a college educator, I believe that students should be the center of their own college searches, and not with a consumerist orientation. There is a lot of helpful information in here that would probably be useful to a family with a high-school-aged student, but I'm finding it so specific to the current moment that it's not especially relevant to me as a parent of a toddler.

Still reading, so it may get better as I progress.

UPDATE: okay, I finished it this morning. The last bit is better than the large middle section I complained about above. It gets back to the subject of actually paying for college and provides some useful info. I still don’t feel that I truly got a whole lot out of this book that I didn’t already know, but I do think it could be very useful for people who don’t work in higher ed but who like wonky data sets and who are maybe a bit closer to actually paying for college.

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of this was informative, but all in all a pretty privileged POV and advice aimed at high earners with realities of crippling student loans almost entirely waved off.

[Devorah Heitner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lieber dissects the confusing mess that parents and aspiring college students find themselves in--finding out the true price of four years (or more!) of college is notoriously hard to do. Turns out, they do this on purpose! Rather than blame yourself, read Ron Lieber's helpful book to be as informed as possible before diving into the process. Along with Lieber's trademark wit and insight, the great storytelling and research make this an enjoyable read despite the stressful topic. I worked in higher education for years and was still stunned by a lot of the information shared by Lieber's sources. Lieber's respect and care for students and their families as consumers and human beings comes through on every page.

The Price You Pay For College also has an excellent bibliography that can help you follow up on the aspects college process that you might need after reading. But if you only have the time and energy to ready one book about paying for college, this is the one!

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a high school counselor who advises juniors and seniors and their families about college. I read this book hoping for new perspectives and information, and finances are one of the most fraught pieces of the college application process. Although there were some interesting anecdotes from professionals who work in financial aid offices, overall I don’t think this book will be too useful fir families. There is A LOT of talk about figuring out value and how to determine whether a college is “worth” the cost, but the fact of the matter is for many families it doesn’t matter whether the college is “worth” it; the price simply isn’t feasible.

[Camelia Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are a parent and want to understand all things related to university admission in the US and the ridiculous financial burden comes with it, this book is for you, but don’t expect that your problem will disappear by the end of the book. There is a lot of useful information and resources for you to work within the system, and, since the system is not going to change in the foreseeable time, working within the system is your only option as a parent. (This is extra painful for me because I used to live in a European country where the yearly tuition fee for any public university is 3000 euro and that is considered expensive among European countries!)

[Karen Adkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a deeply practical book--Ron Leiber's goal here is to explain why college costs as much as it does, and to help parents and prospective students discern the big picture so that they can make financial choices that are appropriate to them. In other words, instead of writing in the sort of facile self-help mode offering misleading one-size-fits-all answers (Ten Steps to Collegiate Financial Freedom!), Leiber organizes the later chapters around the kinds of college experiences that can be valuable and transformative, and explicitly writes to invite readers to think about where they position themselves among these competing needs (because all schools will not do all of these things well, and all students will not be equally drawn to each of these experiences). He's a sharp and crisp financial writer, so he's able to distill clarity from sometimes baroque financial language in ways that were perfectly clear to this humanist. His purpose, in other words, is to get people to think about college not just as a transactional investment (though it clearly is that), but as a transformative investment. Are there ways to make it more likely that students will get into, be able to afford, and most crucially be able to graduate without mind-blowing debt, from a university that provides them a meaningful education?

I'm only giving this three stars mostly because it's so clear that his audience is more restrictive than the title suggests: it's clear that he is writing not just to middle-class or UMC parents with at least some leisure time to devote to this (a few chapters profile parents who went to astonishing lengths to qualify for remarkable merit aid packages from schools), but *white* parents, which seems a really problematic gap in an admirably diverse country. How do I know this? Because one of his chapters focuses on women's colleges--why they exist, the kind of educational value they can provide for students (with tradeoffs considered), that primarily focuses on the ways in which women can be transformed when all the leadership positions on campus are occupied by women. And yet, there's no comparable chapter on HBCUs or HSIs, when it's very clear (particularly with respect to HBCUs) that there's a similar sort of cohort and community effect (Kamala Harris and Ta-Nehisi Coates have each written beautifully about what walking onto the quad at Howard was like for them).

[Maria McGrath · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because of where my children are in their academic careers (junior in college, high school junior, and 7th grader), a fair amount of this information was not new to me. I was glad that he referenced The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere and overall his information was up-to-date and helpful. If one had to pick a single book to read on the process of planning for college, this is a good choice. My favorite chapter covered gap years.

[Patty (IheartYA311) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely helpful and enlightening! So much information here! I would have liked a deeper dive into the loans, but other than that I recommend this book to all parents and students.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's some helpful advice in here if you are new to thinking about selecting and paying for college. But I thought the book was a bit of a mess, teetering between policy analysis and self-help/how-to categories and not doing a great job at either (better at how-to than policy though). I kept feeling surprised by how insanely privileged some of the advice is, like how if you don't have enough income to save for your kid, ask your kids' grandparents to save for you! I felt like the author has no idea how people who aren't upper middle class might be approaching the questions that he raises so his advice struck me as simplistic a lot of the time (lots of low-income people have low-income parents!) Also, I was amazed that he devotes a chapter to Smith and women's colleges, but never says anything about HBCUs--I checked the index to see if I had missed something, but nope. Never talks about them even though the policy issues that he brings up in terms of gender and leadership at Smith are analogous to many similar issues in terms of race at HBCUs. I think when it comes to selecting a college, readers could be much better served by reading "Colleges that Change Lives", a book that he never references but clearly has read, rather than his occasional musings on the value of different types of programs. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised that ideas in this book seem underdeveloped: the author is a columnist and most of these chapters read like stand-alone columns, but it's kind of disappointing that when he has the space in a book to go a little deeper, he doesn't do so.

[Jenny Leitsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this might be the driest audiobook I've ever listened to, it was by far the most instructive. At turns comforting and panic-attack-inducing, Lieber's deep dive into the college admissions world and its often-heavy price tag gave me lots to consider as I begin to walk through the process as a parent. My most important takeaway? That each family's decision-making about college, and how to fund it, is entirely personal and unique. A good thing to keep in mind when the comparison game ramps up.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was much more substantial than I’d imagined! Learned far more than I sought to understand, and appreciated the author’s guidance on how to determine the value/importance of education in one’s family. What determines success? What is college FOR? This book has lent itself to great household conversations.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deep dive into the financial considerations behind college tuition. I learned a lot! I appreciated the information and down-to-earth advice.

[landr · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are starting the college consideration process with our oldest daughter who is now a junior in high school. We will make our first college visits next month. I found this book on a list of best books about college decisions and listened to it over the last 2 weeks. Although the book is long and some of the material is a bit dry, I'm glad that I made it through each and every page. College is the most complex and expensive decisions we will ever make WITH our children. Therein lies the challenge and the opportunity. We must consider and prioritize together with our children might want to go to college such as preparing for a career, expanding their minds and finding their tribe. We then have the opportunity to discuss together about real world financial details such as total cost, loans, and future earnings. I now feel more prepared for these discussions and decisions.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative! A bit too late for me but it's a perfect gift for any parents who have kids entering high school

[Kate Laws · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very well researched and informative book and I'm glad I read it. However, it was not written for me and so it wasn't exactly what I needed for my own circumstances. This book assumes you are looking for a 4 year residential experience, your kids are either younger or you've saved a lot of money already, and that you've probably been to college yourself and/or come from a family where everyone goes. So yeah, I'm glad I read it, but it didn't do me a whole lot of practical good and only made me more concerned about higher education in America.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a lot of great information in this book. The best part, as far as I was concerned, was the middle part which discussed at length WHAT a family should look for in a college, and it’s not what you think. From opportunities to find a mentor, percent of time in small classes, and quality of mental health care, this part I thought was valuable for all families.

[Nhi Aronheim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in 3 days and found that the author did much research about college cost and analyzing its value. I appreciate him sharing his personal experiences at Dartmouth. I highly recommend this book to the parents (and students) who plan for their kids' college.

[Joe Kessler · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the father to a toddler with a new sibling on the way, I picked up this 2021 title expecting simply a quick overview of the current options for various college saving plans. And it has that information, but so much more besides, from which factors affect "merit" scholarships to some of the reasons behind rising tuition costs (and the surprising fact that only a small percentage of families end up paying that full sticker amount) to the other aspects of a university like class size and mentorship opportunities that should be considered when deciding where to apply.

New York Times columnist Ron Lieber has spent decades researching and writing about financial matters, and I've found it particularly helpful to use his framework for thinking through what a student / household wants to get out of their choice for higher education. Do we place a greater value on the doors opened by the degree credential? On the actual course learning? On the residential experience and the bonds of kinship that it tends to form? Different people will weigh these elements differently, and as the author notes, the COVID-19 pandemic has scrambled the traditional calculus with the switch to online lessons and restrictions on social gatherings. Recognizing a moment like that may lead one towards certain schools and away from others, much as it may change how they market and price their offerings accordingly.

All in all, this has been an informative and thought-provoking read, and while I don't know that it's necessarily going to hold up until I'm navigating campus visits and application essays myself, I'd recommend it for any parents of prospective undergraduates today.

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[Nathan Kreps · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd recommend this to any parent hoping to send one or more of their kids to college. It didn't exactly lay out a step-by-step plan for how to fund college, but it did provide a lot of insight. Lieber definitely changed the way I was thinking about college. Some of my big takeaways from the book:

* People go to college for different reasons. It's worth thinking about why your child wants to go to college and what you'd like them to get out of it.
* Different types of schools provide vastly different learning environments. For example, if you want your child to learn from tenured professors rather than graduate students, that ought to factor into the choice.
* Financial aid is completely different than when I went to college in the early 90s. Colleges and universities provide discounts that have nothing to do with financial need and cloak these discounts under the term "merit aid." This aid is used to attract the students these schools want.

There is, of course, much more, but those are the three things that are top of mind right now. I plan to re-read this when my kids actually begin the work of selecting the college or university they want to attend.

[SusanTalksBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Among many valuable insights in Ron Lieber's in-depth and sometimes scathing look at college admissions: "merit" = the tuition discount necessary to secure you as a student. From a nicer zip code? "Merit" will be less. Did your student click on the college's website often, or quickly open emails from the college? Predictive modeling algorithms will tell the college you are more eager to attend and will reduce your "merit" package. At the same time, colleges signal their quality to students and families by raising tuition, or investing in (relatively) low-cost, but flashy, amenities (lazy rivers, golf carts, climbing walls). Rice University did the former, High Point the latter (they aren't alone), both with great success.

This book is a must read for all parents of rising high school upperclassmen. It clearly lays out the economic aspects of higher education for buyers (families) as well as sellers (universities). Readers learn about the role of prestige, diversity awareness, mental health support, correlations between colleges and future financial success and more. Strong 5-stars.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of great info and thought provoking chapters. A book I will likely come back to again. A couple notes for myself (so I remember):
FAFSA + CSS profile = what colleges expect you can pay (here’s hoping for some merit aid too)

Sometimes applying early decision decreases likelihood of extra aid - if they know it’s your first choice, probably don’t need to entice you as much

Tenure track or no - some professors are so focused on tenure and research that teaching takes a back seat. Student to professor ratio also doesn’t always tell the full story - how many are grad students, part-time faculty, adjunct professors- Long-term mentorship opportunities are often more valuable.

Good resources: College Scorecard, Paying for College 101 FB group (was surprised by this recommendation), Alumni Factor

[Melissa McGowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is required reading for parents of college bound children. I found this guide enormously useful in helping me understand the “business model” of higher education and how I might be a better informed consumer. It’s also a good reference for navigating the social emotional aspects of the process, including how to research colleges for the best fit. For folks who want, or need, to cast a wide net for the best possible education for their child, this is a comprehensive guide. For families who are going to apply to exactly two in state universities, or start with community college, this book is for you too. This will help anyone make a more informed choice and as a result, probably reduce your anxiety about the process.

[Emily VA · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the one hand, the early chapters of this book blew my mind - I had no idea how similar college pricing had become to buying a new car (meaning, negotiable, although possibly with even more discounts possible), with the discounts hidden under the umbrella of “merit aid”.

And I’ll probably need to come back to a paper edition of this in about four years and distill some key questions and things to observe when we start thinking seriously about college visits and putting together a short list for our eldest to apply to.

And the chapter on campus mental health care was eye opening.

On the other hand, it’s kind of overwhelming how much ground is covered here, and it definitely seems like doing a “good” job of helping your child figure out where they want to go and how to pay for it is its own full time job, and who has time and energy for that? I guess we’ll do our best when the time comes?

[Deep Frey · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a father of 4 (my oldest is 15), this book was both informative and frightening!

The author's research and knowledge on the subject is impeccable. He instructs the reader on the right questions to ask, and issues to explore throughout the college research and application process. He addresses many of the "myths" and arguments that I often hear regarding paying for college. The fact that the book was published after the onset of the pandemic adds some great context when we look into what we value in the college process. Great anecdotes and stories make this book very readable.

Highly recommend for parents of teens

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

What questions do you need to think about when making a decision about college based on cost value? This book details how to look at colleges based on what you are paying for, whether those things have value both in the price tag and beyond, and how that factors into your decision. There is good detail about financial aid, merit-based scholarships, and how to look at value beyond reputation, including those intangible things that make college years special. If you are the type of person who wants to be armed with a list of questions to ask the admissions counselor, this book is for you.

[Maryam Hye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I read this deeply informative and practical book before starting school. Like many people, I think a lot about the experiences and outcomes of my undergrad journey and how it would turn out if I had chosen a different option. While statistics might suggest a certain kind of result if you follow the XYZs of "should/should not" in life, ultimately there's no point in dwelling on 'what ifs.' Life rarely offers guarantees.

On a more hopeful note, it was a wholesome and validating feeling to come across an entire chapter dedicated to my beloved alma mater, the College of Wooster.

[Karen Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely an eye-opener, and helpful as a non-American (parent), learning how the college system works in the US. Relatively easy read, quick chapters, and covers a LOT of angles - sports scholarships, military, public vs private, trends over time, scholarships and financial aid, negotiating, other costs (beyond tuition), and much more. Well-worth a read for anyone with high-school-aged kids.

It doesn't cover the UC system or other state public systems, which seems to be more straightforward (or regulated?) than the shenanigans played by many other colleges. Or, at least, I didn't leave the book understanding if or where some observations in the book did or did not apply to certain schools.

[Lana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book would be more about unique scholarships and ways to pay for college, but it's more about the research that parents and students should do when choosing a college. Most of this information is not helpful at all if you already have a student in college. The book does shed some light on how the whole higher education system is consumeristic and parents should take that into account when delving into merit aid and need-based aid.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most accessible and practical resources I have read, both as a college counselor and parent trying to save for college. Chock full of helpful tips, behind the scenes insights, and access to other websites and resources. This book immediately helped me do my job more effectively and feel better prepared to plan for college for my own children.