Don't Pay Too Much Attention to College Sticker Prices

Earlier this month, fellow Fool Morgan Housel highlighted the problem of massive debt college graduates take with them when entering the workforce. The problem, he argued, may not be the system of higher education in general, but rather the pathway so many students choose to follow.

Four years of college at a private school right out of high school is awfully expensive compared with two years at a community college and two years at a state college.

But even when we're talking about private schools, the numbers can be misleading. With a little digging, parents and students can find plenty of quality schools whose students routinely get a 30% discount on a college's sticker price.

To highlight this phenomenon, and discuss how you can find the schools with the biggest discounts, Motley Fool contributor Brian Stoffel offers a specific example.

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Source: Central College, Ruhrfisch via Wikimedia Commons.

The article Don't Pay Too Much Attention to College Sticker Prices originally appeared on Fool.com.

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