"The published cost of attendance is a fiction almost no one pays."

"Net effect: a $175k household with a house and a 401(k) is judged "full pay," pays near-sticker from already-taxed income, and receives essentially nothing."

I never know how to resolve these two statements. In our case, my daughter happened to choose a good public university. Maybe that is what they mean.

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pc86 10 hours ago | parent [-]

What do either of those quoted statements have to do with public universities specifically?

	▲	baking 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		At high-end private universities, "The published cost of attendance is a fiction almost no one pays." Yet, most upper-middle-income students are considered "full-pay." Therefore, most upper-middle-income students now attend public universities. Or at least that is the conclusion I drew from the two statements I quoted.