BAXTERCollege Cost Comparison
About

How College Cost Comparison works

What it shows

You choose 2 to 5 colleges from 2,386 U.S. colleges. Your report puts three kinds of official federal data side by side, each with its own year:

  • Published costs (2024–25). Tuition and fees, food and housing, books and supplies, and other expenses, as each college published them for a full-time, first-year undergraduate, before any financial aid. Public colleges show both in-state and out-of-state prices. A total appears only when every cost item was reported.
  • College grants and scholarships (2023–24). The share of first-year students who received a grant or scholarship from the college, and the average amount among those who did. This combines need-based, merit, athletic and waiver aid; it is not “merit aid.”
  • Average net price (2023–24). What first-year students who received federal financial aid paid on average after grants and scholarships, overall and by family income. At public colleges this covers in-state students only.

Each college’s own Net Price Calculator link, as the college reported it to the U.S. Department of Education, is included for a personal estimate.

How the figures are handled

Every figure comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), exactly as the college reported it. Nothing is estimated, adjusted or filled in. Missing figures are shown as “Not reported.” Figures based on fewer than 10 students are not shown, and figures based on 10–29 students are marked as a small group. Figures from different years are never combined.

What it doesn't do

It doesn’t predict what your family will pay, estimate merit scholarships, or tell you whether you’d qualify for any award. Net price and grant figures are historical averages.

One comparison, one report

You can change your college list until you generate your report. Then it’s locked. Your purchase includes 24 hours of access on the browser you buy with, starting when payment is confirmed. Within that time, choose your colleges, generate your report and download the PDF — generating doesn’t add time. When you choose Finish and Exit (or the 24 hours pass), the report is permanently deleted; we don’t keep a copy.

Data ccd-2024.1 (IPEDS published costs 2024–25; student financial aid and net price 2023–24) · rules ccr-1.0. Built for BAXTER Admissions Consulting by Tall Pine Labs.