About the Author: Christina Hlas, Product Director, Kuder
Christina Hlas brings more than 30 years of experience in college financial aid, student lending, and education technology. As director of financial aid at Grand View University and Briar Cliff University, she guided families through the FAFSA, award letters, and borrowing decisions, and she later led product development at Iowa Student Loan. Today, as product director at Kuder, she helps build the career and college planning tools that students, families, and educators use to make those decisions with confidence.
Picture a family sitting around the kitchen table with a college brochure, excited about a school their student loves. Somewhere on the back page is the number: $45,000 a year. As they weigh which schools are the best fit, cost is an important part of the picture, and the best way to evaluate it starts with one question: What would we actually pay?
I spent more than a decade in college financial aid offices, most of it as a financial aid director, before moving into product development. In those years, I sat down with many families as they looked to understand the true costs, and here’s what I always wanted them to know: that sticker price is almost never what you pay.
Every college has a published price, often called the sticker price. Then there’s the net price, which is what a family actually pays after grants and scholarships are subtracted.
The gap can be dramatic. According to the College Board’s Trends in College Pricing, average published tuition and fees for 2025–26 were about $11,950 at public four-year colleges for in-state students and $45,000 at private nonprofit four-year colleges. Average net tuition and fees after grant aid? Roughly $2,300 and $16,910. The College Board also notes that the majority of full-time undergraduates receive grant aid.
Sticker price vs. net price (2025–26 averages, tuition and fees)
Public four-year, in-state: about $11,950 published → about $2,300 after grant aid
Private nonprofit four-year: about $45,000 published → about $16,910 after grant aid
Those are averages for tuition and fees only, so they don’t include housing, food, or books, and your student’s own situation will differ. But the lesson holds: when your family evaluates schools by net price, you get a truer picture of what each option will cost, and some may be more affordable than you expected.
That’s why I encourage families to compare schools on what they’d actually pay, not on the published price. A personalized estimate can change the picture: a private college with a larger grant budget can sometimes come in under a public school that offers less aid. Looking at net price turns a guess into a more realistic comparison, so your student can choose the school that fits best academically, personally, and financially.
Below are the key steps I recommend to determining the true cost of college for your students.
How do you find your net price? It starts with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, better known as the FAFSA. Filing it makes a student eligible for federal grants, work-study, and federal loans, and many states and colleges use it to decide who receives their own aid. Without it, a student may never see what’s available.
Too many families skip it. The National College Attainment Network estimates that $4.4 billion in Pell Grants went unclaimed by the high school class of 2024, and only about 51 percent of that class had completed a FAFSA by the end of August following graduation. Pell Grants generally don’t have to be repaid. That’s a lot of free money left on the table.
Families skip it for understandable reasons. They assume they earn too much to qualify, that the form is too complicated, or that their student won’t need help. I heard all three over the years, and I saw families surprised by the results again and again. You won’t know until you file, and filing is free. Even families who expect no federal aid often find that schools use the FAFSA for their own awards, including merit scholarships.
The best news? The 2027–28 FAFSA is open right now. You can get started on StudentAid.gov. Filing early matters, since some state and school aid is first come, first served. If you have a student graduating in 2027, put it on the calendar this month.
Before you sit down to file
The FAFSA tells you what help may be available. It can’t tell you whether a particular college and program are the right investment for your student. That’s where career and college exploration comes in.
The real cost of college isn’t only the price per year. It’s also how many years it takes. Students without a direction often change course, which can mean extra semesters, credits that don’t transfer, and more borrowing. The National Center for Education Statistics found that about 30 percent of students who declared a major changed it within three years. However, students who used Kuder solutions were less likely to change their major. Changing paths isn’t a failure, but it can be an expensive detour if it happens late. Every extra semester is another semester of tuition, and another semester before a paycheck.
Exploring early is the least expensive way to avoid that. When students discover their interests, skills, and work values, learn about careers that fit them, and understand the education those careers require, they’re more likely to pick a program they’ll stick with, finish on time, and borrow less. At my desk, the students with a clear direction asked better questions, compared offers more carefully, and treated loans as a tool instead of a default.
Exploring doesn’t have to be complicated or costly. Career interest assessments, job shadowing, conversations with people who work in a field, and dual-credit courses all cost far less than a semester of the wrong classes, and each one helps a student answer the question, “What do I want to do, and what will it take to get there?”
Career exploration helps a student decide what to study and where. The FAFSA helps a family understand what it will cost. Used together, they change the question from “Can we afford college?” to “Which of these programs gives our student the best path at a price we can manage?”
That’s why Kuder Navigator® brings these steps together. Students can explore career interests and clusters, then use the College Match tool to build a list of schools that fit them academically and see estimated net costs side by side, along with the programs each school offers. Families can compare personalized estimates instead of sticker prices, and connect each school back to the career path that brought it onto the list in the first place.
One caution from my years as an aid director: estimates are a starting point. Your actual award comes from each school after your FAFSA is processed, so always confirm the details with the financial aid office.
College is one of the biggest investments a family will make, and it deserves a plan, not a snap judgment based on one big number. With a clear direction, a filed FAFSA, and real net cost estimates in hand, families can make confident decisions about where to go and how to pay for it. The sticker price is just where the conversation starts. Your price is what matters. Go find out what it is.
Ready to help your students explore careers and colleges with confidence? Learn how Kuder can support your school or district.
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