Save Money on College Tuition With These 6 Tips

And while most colleges are nonprofits, many have the money to support merit scholarships. “Calling yourself a nonprofit doesn’t mean that you are not financially well equipped,” says Walker. “College is a big business.”

Colleges want to not only earn money, but stay sustainable. One way to do that is to accept students who will thrive at their school and, hopefully, make donations after they graduate. Colleges are “willing to make a current investment in a future endowment stream,” says Walker.

How can you figure out if you are a top-tier academic applicant? Lieber suggests comparing your GPA and other stats to those of the last batch of accepted students. Chany adds that your chances of receiving a merit scholarship may increase if you apply to a school with a high acceptance rate — for example, 80 percent or higher — and you are considered a “high-achieving student,” or someone who has a high GPA compared to the average GPA the school accepts.

Don’t assume public schools will be cheaper.

When people see the tuition for private colleges, which can be more than $80,000 per year all said and done, they assume a public college will be less expensive. But that is not always the case.

“If you’re a high-need student and you’re looking at a state university versus some privates, it could be cheaper to go to a private college,” says Chany, who is also the author of Paying for College, 2025: Everything You Need to Maximize Financial Aid and Afford College. He explains that private schools often have more of their own, institutionally funded need-based aid than public schools, allowing them to offer more financial assistance.

Private colleges also often have more merit-based money to offer, compared to a public school.

Just like when you buy cars or houses, you can negotiate college tuition.

Once your child is accepted to a college and presented with a financial offer, you can negotiate for a better one. This process is referred to as an appeal and can be done for both financial and merit-based aid. Walker explains that families can become emotionally attached to a college, causing them to lose their critical perspective and overlook the true cost involved. “And because of that, we believe that whatever [colleges] offer is the price. We’re being naive about it,” she says.

How do you negotiate? The first step is to ask the college what their process is for appealing their financial offer. Lieber says that if you look at last year’s common data set for the school and your offer is not comparable to those numbers, you can say, “This offer that you made me is lower than the average from last year,” and cite the common data set.

Spend some time at community college.

Recently, Massachusetts began offering free community college classes for eligible residents. Currently 35 U.S. states (including Massachusetts) offer similar community college programs. But even if the community college near you is not free, it is almost guaranteed to cost much less than a four-year university. Your child could potentially save a significant amount of money by attending community college for two years and then transferring to a four-year school.

Plus, some states have programs that guarantee a spot in a four-year state school after two years of community college. In Massachusetts, if you graduate with at least a B average, “you’ll have guaranteed admission to a state university or UMass to complete your junior and senior years — with no application fees or essays,” according to the Massachusetts Department of Education.

Walker says that attending community college is the “most underutilized, overlooked opportunity” to save money on higher education. Before pursuing this option, however, make sure the school’s credits will transfer and that it is a good fit for your student’s major.

Take Advanced Placement and dual enrollment classes while in high school.

Many private and public high schools offer Advanced Placement (AP) classes and dual enrollment programs. Typically, a student enrolls in an AP class at or through their high school and at the end of the year pays a fee of $99 to take the national exam. (Everyone in the country takes the same test.)

If they receive a high score (generally a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 5), most colleges will allow them to apply that score toward college credits.

The more credits a student has, the more classes that student might not have to pay for. (Check each college’s requirements.)

Dual enrollment is a program that combines college course credit with high school credit in one class. For example, if a student is taking a dual enrollment English class, they might receive credit for high school English and college English, if the college they attend accepts those particular class credits.

Sometimes students in a dual enrollment program go to a community college to take the class, and sometimes the teacher comes to the high school.