Is Misinformation Driving the College Affordability Debate?

In a recent Careers & Coffee discussion, host Andy Hibel, chief operating officer and one of the co-founders of HigherEdJobs, sat down with Stephen Payne, senior director of institutional affordability initiatives at Strada Education Foundation, a national nonprofit that works to strengthen connections between postsecondary education and employment. The discussion centered around the Strada report, Cost Confusion: Americans’ Misconceptions of College Costs.

The Gap Between Perception and Price

The report found that 77% of Americans believe college is unaffordable. “That is the challenge here,” Hibel said. Yet most Americans overestimate what students actually pay. Only 22% correctly identified that the average student at a public four-year institution pays between $20,000 and $29,999 per year. One in five believed it would cost more than $50,000. At community colleges, where average net cost runs roughly $6,000 per year according to the College Board, the majority of respondents believed the figure tops $20,000.

Payne noted that net price has actually been declining in recent years, making the gap between perception and reality all the more significant. “What we’ve seen recently is a change in the conversation. We’re hearing from students and parents that there’s this feeling that college is vastly unaffordable.” He connected those misperceptions to a documented pattern called undermatching, where students assume certain schools are out of reach and never apply. “Sometimes the institutions that look to be the most expensive might actually be the most affordable. That’s not intuitive to students and parents.” Part of what causes the confusion is tuition discounting. According to NACUBO, the National Association of College and University Business Officers, the average tuition discount rate at private institutions has exceeded 50% and is trending toward 60%. Payne described the psychology at work: “When you go and talk to a group of parents, they’re often really proud to talk about how their son or daughter may have received a $20,000 scholarship to go to X institution — and maybe their public institution didn’t offer them a scholarship or a significant scholarship and may be more affordable — but that $20,000 scholarship stands out compelling.” Some institutions have responded with tuition resets, lowering the published sticker price while reducing institutional aid proportionally, keeping net cost roughly the same but making pricing more transparent.

Transparency, Time, and Cost Sharing

Strada approaches affordability through three areas: price transparency, reducing time to completion, and cost sharing. On transparency, Payne pointed to the College Cost Transparency Initiative, now comprising nearly 800 institutions, which standardizes financial aid offer letter terms so students can more easily compare packages. He also said that Google has updated institutional search results to show average net cost rather than sticker price. Hibel made a comparison to standardized disclosures required for car loans and mortgages, asking why higher education hasn’t followed the same model. Payne said the window for voluntary action may be narrowing. “There’s been bipartisan legislation for more than 15 years on trying to standardize financial aid offers. For institutions, there’s an opportunity now to take a closer look at your aid offer if you haven’t already.”

Most transparency efforts, Payne noted, require little to no budget. “What is so great about working towards transparency is that in many ways it is a low-to-no-cost effort on your campus. Other than folks’ time and energy to put this forward, perhaps some web tools here or there — compared to dramatically increasing need-based aid for students on your campus, it is significantly less expensive.” In terms of time to completion, Payne discussed dual enrollment as one existing strategy and the growing momentum behind reduced-credit bachelor’s degrees. Accreditors have recently permitted institutions to offer programs below the traditional 120-credit threshold, typically in the 90 to 96 credit range. More than 70 institutions have announced or launched such programs across at least 29 states. The 120-credit standard, Payne explained, was never based on academic research — it traces to a Carnegie Foundation faculty pension eligibility decision made more than 100 years ago. “That was sort of an arbitrary threshold then, and it certainly is now. Nothing has changed. I don’t think it was intended to be the end-all be-all when that decision was made.” Strada is researching employer perceptions of reduced-credit degrees and plans to publish findings in fall 2026.

Affordability Belongs to Everyone on Campus

Payne made it clear that affordability is a whole-campus responsibility, not just that of the financial aid office. “If the board isn’t behind this, academic leadership is going to have a hard time selling it. And if academic leadership is not behind this, it’s going to be hard for admissions and advising to do this.” Faculty can list available resources on a syllabus. Advisors can connect students to paid internship opportunities. For staff without senior titles or budget authority, Payne pointed to a clear starting point: “Elevating the voices that you’re hearing to your leadership is one small place to start.”

Hibel echoed that sense of shared responsibility, agreeing that the college search process itself is part of the solution. “Our job is to keep telling that story. Our job is to keep saying, ‘How do we get to yes?’ There is no recipe for success.” He encouraged students and families not to narrow their search too soon. “Don’t fall in love with just one institution. There are a lot of great ones out there.”

Payne closed by acknowledging the difficulty of the current policy moment. “We view it as an opportunity, but we also recognize that the strain that institutional leaders are under from all of the uncertainty at the federal and state level is real.” For the staff doing that work every day, he gave direct recognition: “Those folks deserve a big tip of the cap. They’re doing really difficult work in trying to communicate the value of higher education in a very difficult moment.”

Watch the full Careers & Coffee conversation on YouTube.

About Careers and Coffee:

HigherEdJobs’ Careers and Coffee is a series of live, interactive Zoom conversations with experts in higher education. Designed to help job seekers and higher ed professionals reflect meaningfully on their careers, the series offers expert advice and insights on best practices, emerging trends, and career-related issues. View a list of all sessions.