by Jeff Cody

College costs are going up again this year and in many cases, students are actually paying less than they did a decade or two ago, once financial aid is factored in. That’s the big takeaway from the College Board’s latest report on higher-ed pricing.

At public four-year colleges, first-time, full-time students paid about $2,300 in net tuition and fees for 2025–26. That’s only a 1.3% increase from last year after inflation—and it’s still almost 50% lower than what students paid back in 2012–13, when costs hit their peak.

Private nonprofit colleges saw a slightly bigger jump. Their average net tuition and fees rose 3.7% to $16,910. But even that is nearly 15% below the high point from 2006–07 when adjusted for inflation.

So why does it feel like college is always getting more expensive? A lot of it comes down to the difference between sticker price and the price students actually pay. Sticker prices do keep rising, but grant aid—money students don’t have to pay back—has grown a lot too.

In 2024–25, total grant aid climbed to $173.7 billion, up more than 5% after inflation. Pell Grants saw the biggest jump: a 19% increase that reached almost a million additional students, thanks in part to expanded eligibility under the FAFSA Simplification Act. Even so, today’s Pell numbers are still well below their 2010–11 peak.

Colleges themselves are also giving out more aid. Institutional grants now make up about one-third of all undergraduate aid, compared to just under a quarter ten years ago. That boost is helping students graduate with less debt. In fact, bachelor’s degree recipients in 2023–24 left school owing an average of $29,560—around $6,000 less than grads a decade earlier.

Sticker prices are still creeping up—2.9% at public colleges and 4% at private nonprofits before inflation—but once you adjust for inflation, the increases are pretty modest. Still, high sticker prices can confuse families and scare off students who don’t realize how much aid is actually available.

Meanwhile, college enrollment has started to bounce back from the pandemic dip. In fall 2023, about 18.9 million students were enrolled nationwide, up from the prior two years. But that number is still almost 10% below the 2011 peak, and with fewer high school graduates expected in the coming years, colleges may face even more pressure to attract students.