College Pricing Black Box: How Colleges Inflate the Cost of a Degree

The price a college advertises and the price a family actually pays out of pocket are two very different numbers, and the distance between them is rarely an accident. Behind the published sticker price sits a system of selective discounts, mandatory fees, and rules that can turn four years of tuition into five or six. Some of these practices have drawn federal scrutiny and lawsuits.Together they help explain why two students sitting in the same lecture hall can pay wildly different amounts for the same education.