Research · College costs · October 2026

What families actually pay at the colleges everyone applies to

Name: What families actually pay at the colleges everyone applies to
Creator: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach)
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

As of October 2026: At the colleges families apply to most, the average yearly price for students who received aid runs from $3,776 at CUNY City College to $44,338 at Fordham University, while published full prices reach $91,250 at Northwestern University. The two can sit far apart at one college. Princeton University averages $6,128 with aid against an $84,040 full price.

The table holds two prices for each college: the average yearly price for students who received aid, and the published full cost of a year. Neither one is a quote for your family.

Analysis: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach, highschoolreach.com), October 2026. Figures and the table may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.

The findings, in plain English

The published price is not the price. Princeton averages $6,128 with aid against an $84,040 full price. Harvard averages $19,066 against $85,540, Vanderbilt $15,846 against $89,590, and the University of Chicago $14,860 against $90,360. The biggest sticker numbers on this list often sit above the deepest discounts.

Some public campuses are inexpensive before any discount. Cal State LA posts an $18,403 full price and a $3,967 average with aid. Cal State Fullerton is $18,269 and $6,555. CUNY City College is $14,403 and $3,776, and the University of Florida is $22,523 and $6,541. At prices like these, the full number is already something a family can plan around.

A high full price does not promise a big discount. Fordham averages $44,338 of an $82,762 full price. Boston College averages $41,704 of $89,493, and Case Western Reserve $41,190 of $85,851. Penn State shows the pattern in reverse, with a $39,694 full price and a $32,875 average with aid, so there is little room between the two.

Net price and full price, college by college

Listed with the most-applied-to colleges first. Each row links to that college's own calculator.

College	State	Average year, with aid	Full price for a year	College's own calculator
University of California-Los Angeles	CA	$12,548	$38,614	Source
University of California-San Diego	CA	$12,470	$38,701	Source
University of California-Berkeley	CA	$13,481	$45,619	Source
University of California-Irvine	CA	$14,251	$38,632	Source
New York University	NY	$37,050	$84,374	Source
University of California-Santa Barbara	CA	$16,109	$41,573	Source
Northeastern University	MA	$30,915	$84,641	Source
University of California-Davis	CA	$14,741	$41,238	Source
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	MI	$13,138	$34,654	Source
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus	PA	$32,875	$39,694	Source
San Diego State University	CA	$15,364	$27,780	Source
University of Southern California	CA	$32,740	$90,300	Source
Boston University	MA	$24,402	$86,285	Source
California State University-Long Beach	CA	$10,440	$22,679	Source
Florida State University	FL	$11,297	$25,720	Source
Purdue University-Main Campus	IN	$14,600	$24,591	Source
Ohio State University-Main Campus	OH	$17,339	$30,305	Source
University of California-Santa Cruz	CA	$17,890	$41,179	Source
Arizona State University Campus Immersion	AZ	$14,967	$30,111	Source
University of California-Merced	CA	$11,983	$39,665	Source
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	IL	$14,355	$33,642	Source
The University of Texas at Austin	TX	$19,857	$31,247	Source
Cornell University	NY	$28,690	$88,140	Source
University of Florida	FL	$6,541	$22,523	Source
University of South Florida	FL	$9,812	$22,859	Source
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo	CA	$16,665	$32,265	Source
University of Wisconsin-Madison	WI	$17,354	$28,679	Source
University of California-Riverside	CA	$14,304	$38,942	Source
University of Washington-Seattle Campus	WA	$14,091	$32,446	Source
University of Central Florida	FL	$10,411	$23,133	Source
Clemson University	SC	$22,253	$35,015	Source
University of Pennsylvania	PA	$28,699	$89,028	Source
University of Maryland-College Park	MD	$15,678	$29,299	Source
Michigan State University	MI	$19,680	$32,198	Source
The University of Alabama	AL	$22,420	$33,382	Source
University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus	PA	$30,434	$38,105	Source
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	NC	$11,655	$26,055	Source
Columbia University in the City of New York	NY	$21,590	$89,472	Source
Harvard University	MA	$19,066	$85,540	Source
University of Virginia-Main Campus	VA	$21,565	$39,926	Source
University of Arizona	AZ	$16,674	$29,423	Source
University of Colorado Boulder	CO	$25,346	$37,684	Source
Indiana University-Bloomington	IN	$16,264	$28,801	Source
Stanford University	CA	$13,807	$87,833	Source
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus	GA	$12,116	$28,167	Source
Yale University	CT	$23,777	$88,300	Source
Northwestern University	IL	$29,167	$91,250	Source
Brown University	RI	$25,184	$87,648	Source
Texas A & M University-College Station	TX	$21,315	$32,696	Source
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville	TN	$18,976	$33,678	Source
University of Massachusetts-Amherst	MA	$22,383	$34,549	Source
Stony Brook University	NY	$18,784	$30,539	Source
Binghamton University	NY	$21,620	$30,345	Source
California State University-Fullerton	CA	$6,555	$18,269	Source
University of Miami	FL	$37,244	$86,078	Source
Auburn University	AL	$24,323	$34,919	Source
Grand Canyon University	AZ	$22,472	$32,702	Source
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	VA	$24,953	$36,951	Source
University of South Carolina-Columbia	SC	$22,811	$31,638	Source
University of Connecticut	CT	$25,097	$39,426	Source
Duke University	NC	$29,612	$87,072	Source
California State Polytechnic University-Pomona	CA	$11,531	$23,955	Source
Vanderbilt University	TN	$15,846	$89,590	Source
Southern New Hampshire University	NH	$36,708	$40,918	Source
Fordham University	NY	$44,338	$82,762	Source
University of Georgia	GA	$13,936	$27,993	Source
Rutgers University-New Brunswick	NJ	$24,406	$36,993	Source
Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College	LA	$19,151	$34,705	Source
Syracuse University	NY	$38,793	$84,517	Source
Loyola University Chicago	IL	$36,079	$67,408	Source
Drexel University	PA	$38,509	$76,835	Source
North Carolina State University at Raleigh	NC	$17,303	$26,425	Source
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities	MN	$16,778	$30,061	Source
Baylor University	TX	$41,104	$74,226	Source
Princeton University	NJ	$6,128	$84,040	Source
University of Oregon	OR	$22,182	$34,793	Source
Case Western Reserve University	OH	$41,190	$85,851	Source
Johns Hopkins University	MD	$18,809	$85,947	Source
University of Chicago	IL	$14,860	$90,360	Source
University at Buffalo	NY	$20,995	$30,785	Source
Northern Arizona University	AZ	$14,158	$29,933	Source
University of Delaware	DE	$17,799	$30,952	Source
Texas State University	TX	$16,805	$28,073	Source
Liberty University	VA	$29,357	$42,025	Source
University of North Texas	TX	$15,649	$26,243	Source
Colorado State University-Fort Collins	CO	$21,279	$31,642	Source
Temple University	PA	$28,198	$40,903	Source
Boston College	MA	$41,704	$89,493	Source
San Jose State University	CA	$13,760	$26,593	Source
James Madison University	VA	$23,322	$31,735	Source
The University of Tampa	FL	$36,211	$51,614	Source
Miami University-Oxford	OH	$28,384	$38,757	Source
Texas Tech University	TX	$19,070	$27,443	Source
Tufts University	MA	$39,998	$88,300	Source
Carnegie Mellon University	PA	$31,944	$83,654	Source
University of Cincinnati-Main Campus	OH	$25,648	$32,171	Source
California State University-Los Angeles	CA	$3,967	$18,403	Source
Washington University in St Louis	MO	$21,786	$88,488	Source
DePaul University	IL	$30,902	$63,052	Source
CUNY City College	NY	$3,776	$14,403	Source

Net price is the average amount paid for one year by students who received aid at that college. Full price is the published cost of attendance for one year, which covers tuition, housing, food, books, and fees. Both come from the latest federal file as of October 2026 and describe students already enrolled, not your family. Federal income-bracket averages are not shown.

What the two numbers mean

The net price is an average, built from the students at that college who received aid. The full price is what the college publishes for a year, housing and food included. Both describe people who are already there, so neither is a quote for your family.

We do not print the federal income-bracket averages. The top bracket holds families whose finances have almost nothing in common, and an average across them tells a parent nothing they can plan with. Every row here links to the college's own calculator instead, which is the one figure built for your household.

Merit money is the part a student can still move

Merit money is the one part of a college price a student can still move while in high school. Grades and test scores set it, and many colleges publish the grid in plain terms: this score and this grade point average bring this award, renewed each year.

That award comes off the bill before anything is borrowed, and it does not depend on what a family earns. A college's published cost will not move for your family. A test score can.

What a family should do with this

Compare colleges on the with-aid number, not on the sticker. Then run each college's own calculator from the link in its row, because your family's figure is probably not the average in this table.

Put the merit grid for each college beside that result. Last, read the price next to what a graduate of that college tends to earn ten years out. A price only means something when the pay is in the same view.

Questions parents ask

What do families actually pay at these colleges?

At the colleges families apply to most, the average yearly price for students who received aid runs from $3,776 at CUNY City College to $44,338 at Fordham University, while published full prices reach $91,250 at Northwestern University.

Is the net price what my family will pay?

Both describe people who are already there, so neither is a quote for your family.

What part of a college price can we still change?

Merit money is the one part of a college price a student can still move while in high school.

Method & sources: Both figures come from the College Scorecard. Net price is the average amount paid for one year by students who received aid at that college; full price is the published cost of attendance for one year. The population is the colleges that receive the most applications, listed in that order. Federal income-bracket averages are not displayed, and the per-family figure is the college's own net price calculator, linked in each row.

College Scorecard data files

This brief as data: /research/what-families-pay-100-colleges.json. Free for editorial use with attribution to Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach).

What families actually pay at the colleges everyone applies to

Net price and full price, college by college

What the two numbers mean

Merit money is the part a student can still move

What a family should do with this

Where does your student stand?