The only cost number that matters is the one you will actually pay

Four numbers, and which one to trust

**Sticker price** is the published tuition and fees. Almost nobody at a private institution pays it.

**Cost of attendance** adds housing, food, books and transport. It is bigger than tuition and it is the number financial-aid offices work from.

**Net price** is cost of attendance minus grants and scholarships you do not repay. This is the real annual figure. It is the one to compare across schools.

**Median debt at graduation** is what previous graduates of that program borrowed. It is the best available preview of your own likely balance.

On this site, cost per year and four-year cost are published figures, not net price — so read them as an upper bound. Median debt is program-specific and is the closer proxy for what students there actually carried.

A rule of thumb worth keeping

Try to keep total borrowing under the first-year salary the program typically produces. If a program's graduates start near $52,000 and the median debt is $58,000, that is a tight decade. If they start at $52,000 and borrow $19,000, that is manageable on a normal repayment plan.

Where the money is actually won

Appealing an aid offer with a competing one. Two years at a community college with a guaranteed transfer. Graduating in four years instead of six — the cheapest tuition in the country is the semester you did not need. In-state residency where it applies. These moves routinely swing more money than the difference between the schools you are agonizing over.