Breaking Down Barriers: Let’s Simplify How We Pay for College

How much a student pays for their higher education degree is an issue many state and higher education leaders are working to address. Recently, Bethel University in Minnesota announced it will lower its Fall 2025 base tuition for undergraduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences from $44,050 to $25,990. Other private universities, including Wartburg College in Iowa and Utica College in New York, have adopted a similar strategy. Most public universities are either reducing tuition costs by freezing tuition, covering some or all tuition for lower income students, or deep discounting through scholarships programs supported by the State or donors.

These are important tuition reduction strategies that, from a student and family perspective, go a long way to promote accessibility and transparency of the cost to attend a college or university. But tuition does not represent the total cost of attendance, which also includes room and board costs. There are also program fees to help cover high-cost programs or course fees that vary by semester. The total cost is often unknown until well into the first month of every semester.

For most families, understanding the total cost of attendance and then paying continues to be a complicated maze where families spend hours trying to understand the final cost per semester and then work to piece together different sources of funds to pay. The process of filling out FAFSA form is daunting. Hours and hours are spent searching for and figuring out if a student qualifies for institutional and donor scholarships. Eligible for work study? Work available on campus? Loan options? Making calls to the financial aid office. To say it’s overwhelming is an understatement.

It doesn’t have to be.? Consider this. I recently went through the process of purchasing an EV car. It’s been 10 years since I bought a car, so this was essentially a newish experience for me. Yes, the structure remained basically the same. There was the sticker price – the total cost that included all the taxes and fees. Then discounts were applied by the dealer along with a State of Colorado EV rebate to get a final cost. Then I counter and we reached an agreement on the total cost. Before I drove the car off the lot, I knew the total cost, and I knew if wasn’t going to change every three months. ?I knew how much I would be paying every month. But something very different happened in this process that I was not expecting. I was preparing myself for the hassle of getting that State rebate. You know the drill when it comes to getting rebates. You must find the rebate website, find the right form, fill out the form (correctly) and wait months for the rebate. Much to my surprise I didn’t have to do any of that legwork. The dealer figured out a way to receive the rebate and I received the State discount amount that day without going through usual hassle.

What can we learn about paying for higher education from this experience? Let’s figure out a way to determine the total cost of a degree and develop a streamlined way pay for the cost of attendance. What if students were given a multiyear total cost of attendance - it could be for 2, 4 or 6 years - that does not vary – its locked in. Let’s have universities take on more of the processes to find and apply discounts. ?Sure there are many variables to consider. Let’s get creative and come up with innovative ideas to make the cost of attendance more transparent and then less burdensome to pay for it. Simplifying the entire process would be address on one key barrier students face to obtaining a degree.

What are your thoughts? How do you think we could make paying for higher education for streamlined?