You may not need that student loan after all. Here's the latest college tuition trend.
Americans love to grouse about the rising cost of college. But consider this: The average in-state student at a public university now pays only $2,480 a year in net tuition and fees.
Tuition, of course, is only one item on the list of college expenses. Room and board can cost more. But the full cost of attending a public college is falling, rather than rising, after you adjust it for inflation.
The average net price in tuition and fees for an in-state student at a four-year public college has plummeted by 40% in a decade, after inflation, from $4,140 in 2014-15 to an estimated $2,480 in 2024-25, according to a new report from the College Board.
“The notion that the cost of college is out of control is not accurate,” said Mark Becker, president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. “And the College Board data show that.”
The figures represent the average net price of college tuition and fees for a first-time student, after you deduct grants, scholarships and other discounts and account for inflation.
(The College Board factors in financial aid and inflation to show real changes in price over time. If you ignore both inflation and aid, then college tuition is modestly rising, other reports have shown.)
The full cost of attending a public college is falling, too, although not quite so swiftly. The net cost of in-state attendance, including room and board and other expenses, has declined from $23,050 in 2014 to $20,780 in 2024, after factoring in grants and inflation, the College Board found. In effect, room and board account for much of the annual tab for an in-state student.
Prices are falling across academia
Prices are falling across the higher-education sector as the industry copes with sagging enrollment and cost-conscious customers, finance experts say.
Falling college prices, however, is not the trend that grabs most of the headlines. Applicants swoon whenever someone runs a new list of most expensive colleges: the ones that charge more than $70,000 a year in tuition and fees, or more than $400,000 in total costs over four years.
But those are “sticker” prices, and research suggests most students don’t pay them. Elite colleges often pledge to meet the financial needs of every student. Colleges routinely offer discounted rates to attract worthy students.
Even at private nonprofit colleges, average tuition and fees have dwindled from $18,680 in 2014 to an estimated $16,510 in 2024, after accounting for inflation and aid.
At public two-year colleges, net tuition has dropped into negative territory. The average student in 2024 receives enough aid to fully cover tuition and fees, with $710 left over for other expenses.
The figures come from the College Board’s annual Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid report.
The sticker price of college is falling
The falling cost of public college reflects two economic trends, both beneficial to the consumer, the College Board reports.
The sticker price of college is falling. Published tuition and fees averaged $11,610 in 2024 for in-state students at four-year public colleges, down from a peak of $12,830 in 2019, after inflation.
Public flagship universities in 45 states charge less for tuition and fees in 2024 than in 2019, after inflation.
And student aid is rising. Grant aid per student rose from $8,000 in 2014 to $9,130 in 2024 for in-state students at public four-year colleges, in inflation-adjusted dollars.
The overall amount of aid dispensed by colleges and their states has risen over the past 10 years, the College Board said.
Roughly half of students at public universities completed their degrees without debt in 2022-23, compared with about two-fifths of students a decade earlier.
“State governments have been reinvesting in higher education over the last decade,” after a round of dramatic cuts in the Great Recession era, said Nicholas Hillman, a professor and expert on higher education finance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Americans expect college tuition to rise
Falling prices and dwindling debt fly in the face of public opinion. Roughly half of Americans expect public college tuition to rise over the next year, and only 9% expect it to fall, according to survey data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Public opinion isn’t entirely wrong. College tuition is gradually increasing across much of the nation − but inflation is rising faster.
Out-of-pocket tuition costs for American households have risen by less than 9% since 2019, according to an analysis by the Chronicle of Higher Education. In contrast, overall prices have increased by more than 22%.
Public skepticism has driven many colleges to tamp down tuition increases, said Jason Delisle, a nonresident senior fellow at the Center on Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute.
“People are more price-sensitive. They’re questioning whether they should go” to college at all, Delisle said. “They’re questioning whether to take on debt.”
College enrollment has been falling for a decade, although there are signs of a rebound. A dearth of students compels colleges to compete for their business.
Colleges 'are not in the driver's seat'
Colleges are “in a sort of buyer’s market,” Delisle said. “They’re not in the driver’s seat.”
College pricing is complex, and admission officers struggle to explain the math to potential students and their families, higher-education experts say.
Many colleges, in effect, charge students according to their ability to pay. In that equation, sticker price is only a starting point. Students pay tuition at different rates, a concept that no dollar figure on a college website can quite convey.
“There isn’t a uniform price that everybody pays,” Hillman said, “just like on an airplane.”
Tuition costs also vary widely from state to state. The least expensive state is Florida, the College Board reports, with average published tuition and fees of $6,360 for in-state students. The most expensive is Vermont, with an average of $17,490.
But nearly every state charges less in 2024 than it did in 2019, after inflation. Public universities subsidize in-state students by charging a premium to out-of-state students. On average, those students pay about $30,000 more.
“It’s hard to make a blanket statement about all 50 states,” Becker said. “But when you look nationally, the net effect is, there has been an increased investment in higher education.”