College costs have become a significant barrier to higher education access, with some institutions now charging over $100,000 annually. However, students and families typically pay substantially less than advertised prices, spending an average of approximately $34,000 during the 2025-26 academic year when accounting for tuition, fees, books, housing, and other expenses.
Families generally finance college through a combination of resources including personal savings, scholarships, student loans, and additional employment. Merit-based aid has emerged as an underutilized resource in this landscape. Over the past decade, institutional grant aid increased by 24%, reaching $85.1 billion and representing roughly half of all grant aid available to undergraduate and graduate students. Financial aid packages now significantly influence where students choose to attend college, with approximately 89% of surveyed students indicating they would have selected a different institution in exchange for more scholarship funding.
The Princeton Review’s 2027 edition of its “Best Colleges” guide ranked institutions based on the generosity of their financial aid awards and student satisfaction with aid packages. The rankings incorporated survey data from 170,000 students during the 2025-26 academic year. Washington and Lee University topped the list with the highest sticker price at approximately $97,335 annually but reduced actual costs to around $25,350 through an average need-based scholarship of nearly $72,000. Princeton University ranked third with an average out-of-pocket cost of $10,787, while several other highly-ranked institutions including Amherst College, Vanderbilt University, and St. Olaf College met 100% of demonstrated financial need for first-year students receiving aid. The data illustrates that substantial scholarship funding remains available at many selective institutions, potentially making them more financially accessible than their published prices suggest.
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