Cost of Attendance
Transparency Project

The Problem:
The cost of college goes well beyond Tuition.
Living costs are a critical component of college affordability.

The cost of college shapes who can enroll, persist, and graduate. This is especially the case for students who come from low- and moderate-income backgrounds. * Ezarik, M. (2025). Beyond Tuition: The Hidden Costs of College and Their Disproportionate Impact. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/reports/2025/11/12/beyond-tuition-hidden-costs-college-and-their-disproportionate-impact

While tuition dominates much of the conversation regarding the cost of college, for millions of students, housing, food, transportation, and other expenses on top of tuition and fees determines whether attending college is financially feasible.

Cost of Attendance

According to the federal guidelines, the Cost of Attendance (COA) is an estimate of the direct and indirect costs of attending college. Direct costs include tuition and fees and indirect costs include housing and food, books and supplies, transportation expenses, and other miscellaneous personal expenses, as determined by the institution. * Federal Student Aid. (n.d.). What does cost of attendance (COA) mean? https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/what-does-cost-of-attendance-mean While tuition dominates much of the conversation regarding the cost of college, for millions of students, housing, food, transportation, and other expenses on top of tuition and fees determines whether attending college is financially feasible. * Emrey-Arras, M. (2022). Financial Aid Offers: Action Needed to Improve Information on College Costs and Student Aid. Report to the Republican Leader, Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives. GAO-23-104708. US Government Accountability Office.
At many institutions, non-tuition expenses make up more than half of the Cost of Attendance (COA) on average. Yet these costs are often the least transparent, least standardized, and least scrutinized part of the college affordability conversations, even though COA sits at the center of federal and state financial aid policy. * Coles, A., Keane, L., & Williams, B., 2020, Beyond the College Bill: The Hidden Hurdles of Indirect Expenses. uAspire. www.uaspire.org/BlankSite/media/uaspire/Beyond-the-College-Bill.pdf * McKibben, B., 2024. How Colleges Set Their Prices: The Need for Federal Oversight of “Cost of Attendance” in Higher Education. The Hope Center for Student Basic Needs. https://hope.temple.edu/sites/hope/files/media/document/CostOfAttendance_2024.pdf Cost of Affordability isn’t just a statistic; it’s a policy lever that influences aid eligibility and the basis of students’ understanding of college affordability.

For Community College Students, Tuition Is Just One-Fifth of the Cost

Why Does This Matter?

COA underpins aid eligibility, shapes measures of affordability, and influences what students believe they can afford. * Ruggless, M. A. (2023). Exploring the Development and Decision-Making Process of Cost of Attendance at American Colleges and Universities (Doctoral dissertation, Saint Louis University). COA also determines who qualifies for aid, how much support they receive, and what “net price” students will end up paying. Tuition and fees are generally transparent, set charges. Living costs, on the other hand, are institutional estimates embedded in COA, making them more variable and more likely to be inaccurate.
Nearly half of colleges misestimate non-tuition costs by 20% or more, distorting aid packages and student budgets, and disproportionately impacting low-income and working students. * Emrey-Arras, M. (2022). Financial Aid Offers: Action Needed to Improve Information on College Costs and Student Aid. Report to the Republican Leader, Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives. GAO-23-104708. US Government Accountability Office.; Kelchen, R., Goldrick-Rab, S., & Hosch, B. (2017). The costs of college attendance: Examining variation and consistency in institutional living cost allowances. The Journal of Higher Education, 88(6), 947-971.

What We’re Building:
A clearer, more trustworthy foundation for college affordability

Using qualitative and quantitative methods, this project explores how indirect (or non-tuition and fees) costs are estimated and communicated. We will hone in on:

  • How institutions develop living-cost allowances (methods, inputs, assumptions, and variation across sectors and geographies)

  • Identifying systematic patterns and drivers of misestimation, including where estimates diverge most from plausible student expenses

  • Producing actionable evidence-informed research that policymakers, researchers, and funders can use to strengthen transparency, comparability, and accuracy in college affordability metrics

  • Co-developing solutions with stakeholders, including agencies, institutions, researchers, and student-centered organizations, to ensure reforms are feasible and that students’ ability to make budgeting and enrollment decisions remains the top priority

How You Can Join Us

  • Support the work: Help build independent, policy-relevant evidence on the largest, and least measured, component of college costs.

  • Partner with us: Collaborate on research, policy design, pilots, or implementation strategies.

  • Use what we produce: Incorporate our work into efforts to improve COA accuracy and transparency, design stronger accountability frameworks, and inform policy and regulatory analysis.

  • Amplify and share: Cite the work, share it with peers, and help move living costs from the margins to the center of affordability conversations.

College affordability starts with bringing transparency and accuracy to how COA is set in the first place. Through this process, calculating realistic living costs is crucial and one of the highest-leverage opportunities for impact.

Supporters

The Cost of Attendance (COA) Transparency Project is a multi-year initiative led by the Hildreth Institute, with generous support from the Gates Foundation, Lumina Foundation, the Strada Education Foundation, Tech Forward, and The Hildreth Steward Charitable Foundation.