Cost of Attendance
Transparency Project
RECLAIMING THE PROMISE OF HIGHER ED
The True Cost of College Goes Beyond Tuition
Use the interactive dashboard to explore how colleges’ reported living-cost allowances compare with Hildreth Institute’s localized benchmarks—and how those patterns differ across states, sectors, and locales.
The national findings show institutions on both sides of the benchmark, but the picture is not the same everywhere. In some states or groups of institutions, below-benchmark estimates are more prevalent; in others, above-benchmark estimates predominate. Exploring these differences can help surface patterns that national averages alone may obscure and point toward questions for further research.
The dashboard currently presents higher-level patterns rather than institution-level results. It is designed to support exploration of broader trends—not to evaluate individual colleges or identify a single “correct” student budget.
Explore the dashboard below.
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Estimating Student Need: Findings from the Cost of Attendance Transparency Project
View Our Interactive Dashboard
Explore key patterns in college living-cost estimates and interact with data collected from years of research.
Our Funders
The Cost of Attendance Transparency Project was made possible through the generous support of Lumina Foundation, Strada Education Foundation, Gates Foundation, and a donor-advised fund at The Boston Foundation. The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of any of the project's funders.
