Hidden Tuition

“If you’re looking for the best explanation of how college pricing works and financial aid is determined, Phillip Levine has written the book for you. It’s called Hidden Tuition, and it offers a straight-forward, clear-eyed explanation of how colleges arrive at the prices they charge and why students sometimes pay vastly different amounts to attend the same college…The book’s distinctive strength is that by explaining how college pricing and financial aid work, parents and students will be able to understand them. It will enable them to think more clearly—in this case, more like an economist—about how the system operates and how they can interact strategically within it.”

“In his new book, Hidden Tuition, Levine explains how colleges set prices and how families can minimize what they actually pay. The book builds on his previous work, which includes the creation of MyinTuition, a calculator that estimates what families can expect to pay.”

“After over a decade studying how much students pay for college, Phil Levine has turned his expertise into a practical guide for prospective students and their families…Hidden Tuition will help prospective students understand how to pay for college, as well as some of the mechanics of how the financial aid system works.”

“Hidden Tuition is a must read for students, families, and college counselors who want to know what it is going to cost to go to college. It just shouldn’t be that hard to find out, but it is. This book helps cut through all the jargon to answer this question, and does it with both clarity and humor, a significant challenge when talking about financial aid.”

“Levine has spent years helping students and families make sense of college pricing and financial aid, both through his research and through tools like MyinTuition that put real numbers in front of real families. Hidden Tuition builds on that by demystifying the college pricing system, which too often confuses families, especially those who need it most. A useful book, written with clarity and care.”

“I’ve spent years helping families navigate college admissions, but Hidden Tuition made me rethink how I explain the money side of it. Levine has done what no one else could: turned an economist’s brain into a parent’s handbook. I’ll never talk about college pricing the same way again.”

Phillip B. Levine is the Katharine Coman and A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Economics at Wellesley College. He is the author of A Problem of Fit: How the Complexity of College Pricing Hurts Students—and Universities. He has contributed to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Time, and Slate, and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, ABC News Nightline, and NPR’s All Things Considered.

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