Before we begin, here is what this post does not do: It will generally not tell you where you can get low tuition, with a very few exceptions. And when it does, it won't be at one of "those" colleges. It will not tell you which colleges are likely to close soon, although after the fact, you can probably find a closed college and say, "Aha! Right where I expected it would be!" It will not show you net costs to students. It will not adjust for things like church support, enormous endowments, or the cost of living in that high-priced city where Excellence College or Superior University is located. Got it? Good. This will show you the discount rate on first-year students at about 1,000 four-year, private, not-for-profit colleges in 2021-22. Discount as I define it is the total unfunded institutional financial aid divided by the total charged (gross) tuition and fees. A university that charges (published tuition and fees times the number of students) $10,000,000
One of the intended consequences of test-optional admission policies at some institutions prior to the COVID-19 pandemic was to raise test scores reported to US News and World Report. It's rare that you would see a proponent of test-optional admission like me admit that, but to deny it would be foolish. Because I worked at DePaul, which was an early adopter of the approach (at least among large universities), I fielded a lot of calls from colleagues who were considering it, some of whom were explicit in their reasons for doing so. One person I spoke to came right out at the start of the call: She was only calling, she said, because her provost wanted to know how much they could raise scores if they went test-optional. If I sensed or heard that motivation, I advised people against it. In those days, the vast majority of students took standardized admission tests like the SAT or ACT, but the percentage of students applying without tests was still relatively small; the needle would