• College tuition varies at schools across the US.
• Using data from the Department of Education, we found the most expensive college in every state.

College tuition has been getting more expensive, and costs widely vary among the country's colleges and universities.

Using data from the US Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System program, we found the most expensive four-year, primarily baccalaureate and above degree-granting institution with at least 500 students enrolled in Fall 2016, based on reported tuition, board, and other costs for the 2016-2017 school year for out-of-state students.

You can check out our full list of the colleges here.

Here's the most expensive college in every state, along with the 2016-2017 total sticker price cost:

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• Midland School is a co-ed boarding school in Los Olivos, California, where in addition to completing a rigorous curriculum, students farm, clean, and explore the surrounding wilderness.
• Students and faculty have no access to cell phones during the six-week term.
• Annual tuition at Midland costs $55,300, though more than half the student body gets scholarships of around $32,000.
• Graduates have enrolled at Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, and Harvey Mudd.

Tucked in a grassy canyon along the Central Coast is a high school where students chop wood and tend livestock between their history and calculus classes.

Doubling as a working farm, the campus differs from the typical American high school in another crucial respect: No one among the faculty or the roughly 90 students ever looks at a cell phone.

Midland School, a co-ed boarding school in Los Olivos, was established in 1932. The idea, as founder Paul Squibb put it, was that a student who appreciates his material blessings, "will live a more vivid and interesting life and will be a better citizen."

The credo is reflected in the instructions given to incoming freshmen, who are encouraged to bring three important objects: an axe, a knife, and a lighter. Cell phones, meanwhile, are confiscated until the end of the six-week term.

"We know we're different and we know we're a little crazy," said Christopher Barnes, the head of school. "The question for each student and for each family is if we're your kind of crazy."

The students more or less run Midland, which has no janitorial or maintenance staff. They plant and pick about half of the food they eat on a 10-acre farm. They clean the windows, maintain the landscape, and sweep the old chapel.

Fall out of line and it's a problem, said Barnes. He cited the wood-fired showers. "When it's your job in the afternoon to go up and light a fire and make hot water, if you fail at that task  —  either you don't tend to the fire or whatever else  —  then you suffer the wrath of your peers," he said. "And you earned that wrath."

For the pleasure of all that work and study, Midland charges an eye-popping tuition of $55,300, though only about 40 percent of families pay it. More than half the student body gets scholarships of around $32,000.

Midland graduates reliably move on to well-regarded universities, including Stanford and Harvard. Many later report being profoundly changed by their rustic high school experiences. Yet even during a time of growing anxiety over the role of technology in young people's lives, Midland has struggled to keep its enrollment numbers up.

That's partly because private school applications have been on the decline generally. There's also the matter of boarding  —  the students stay in spare wooden cabins  —  an idea that doesn't sit well with many California parents. And in some cases, Barnes said, prospective students have recoiled at the no-phone policy. "Thirteen- and 14-year-olds have a veto," he noted. "That didn't use to be true."

Still, a number of Midland students said that while the initial withdrawal was difficult, they ultimately found the phoneless life to be almost liberating.

Jade Feldsher, a 16-year-old from Rancho Cucamonga, said that before joining Midland she worried about how devices had overtaken her social life. "I thought that everybody was becoming a phone zombie, and I knew that I'd become one too, and I did," she said.

"It sounds really cheesy," she added, "but I think I'm happy to not have it."

This article is from the California Sun, a newsletter that delivers California's most compelling news to your inbox each morning  —  for free. Sign up here.

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• College tuition and student-loan debt are higher than ever.
• College is expensive for many reasons, including a surge in demand, an increase in financial aid, a lack of state funding, a need for more faculty members and money to pay them, and ballooning student services.
• The cost of college has made a degree less advantageous than it was 10 years ago, one expert said. 

Josh Kirdy knows how to hustle.

When he's not working full time as an assistant store manager at Universal Orlando, the 26-year-old is on the prowl for side work, landing stints walking dogs and putting in part-time hours at a local mall retailer.

He developed this juggling act to put extra payments toward his $37,000 student-loan debt.

"I'm happy with my life today and with the education I received, but it's unfortunate that I'll be paying for it for another seven years at least," Kirdy, who attended a four-year public university, told Business Insider. He's set to pay roughly $300 a month in student-loan repayments until he's 35.

"There are many factors behind the cost of college, and some people have stressed one or another," Richard Vedder, an author and distinguished professor of economics emeritus at Ohio University, told Business Insider.

But the ultimate driver of cost, Vedder said, is the sheer number of people vying for a college education. Higher enrollment has brought an expansion of financial-aid programs, a need to increase budgets for faculty pay and on-campus student services, and a decline in financial support from state governments.

College tuition has more than doubled since the 1980s

Kirdy is just one of the more than 44 million Americans with student-loan debt and contributing to a whopping national total of $1.5 trillion, according to Student Loan Hero. The average student debt per graduate who took out loans is higher than ever, at $17,126, Business Insider reported in November.

These stats are especially troubling considering their effects on people's long-term goals. Millennials are facing unique financial struggles previous generations weren't, like having to save longer for increased housing costs, something that hasn't been helped by the burden of student-loan debt.

"I feel like buying a house is a total pipe dream at this point in my life, but I'm tightening my belt as much as possible to save for a down payment right now," a water-resources engineer who graduated from a public university with roughly $25,000 in debt told Business Insider.

Four years later, she owes just under $19,000. Her $300 payments are set on autopay, which reduces her interest by 2.5% a month. It's more than her $260 income-driven payment plan requires, but she'll pay it down quicker this way.

"Thankfully, I have USAA, who has a great first-time-homebuyer program, so I only need a 3% down payment to get started," she said. "But without that, I would be trapped in a rent cycle until a second income magically appears in my life."

Boone Porcher, who owes $32,645 after five years at a public university, started paying double his minimum payment two years after graduating so he could pay off his debt in five years.

"I started to think more about their impact when evaluating my long-term planning, and I made the decision that I wanted the debt gone entirely ASAP," Porcher, a 26-year-old supply-chain consultant, told Business Insider. "Personally, I don't feel comfortable taking a loan on a house while having student loans."

A recent Student Loan Hero report found that while wages have increased by 67% since 1970, college tuition has increased at a faster rate, continuing to deliver a fair amount of sticker shock.

Roxy Novo told Business Insider her $60,000 student-loan debt from attending a private college had slowed down her life plans. The 22-year-old commutes two hours every day from New Jersey to her job as a studio artist fellow in New York City because her $500 monthly loan payment is equivalent to a portion of what it would cost to rent an apartment in the city, she said.

"I definitely cannot consider moving closer until I get a higher-paying job and get a good chunk of my debt paid," Novo said. "I'm trying to do the responsible thing and eliminate loans before considering any expensive, fun things, but it can be really hard when your friends are out traveling the world and moving to the city and you're swimming in debt."

College tuition was more affordable for older generations, Student Loan Hero reported, citing figures from the College Board: From the late 1980s to now, the cost of an undergraduate degree has risen by 213% at public schools and 129% at private schools, adjusting for inflation.

From the 2016-17 to the 2017-18 school year, the average cost of tuition and fees increased by more than 3% at private and public colleges, according to the College Board's "Trends in College Pricing 2017" report. At a four-year nonprofit private institution, tuition and room and board is $46,950, on average. Four-year public colleges charge an average of $20,770 a year for tuition, fees, and room and board. For out-of-state students, the total goes up to $36,420.

And then there are costs beyond tuition, like living expenses.

"One of the main reasons why I accrued so much debt was because my parents didn't save any money for me to go to college and they couldn't afford to contribute to the cause, so I used student loans not only to pay tuition but also to cover living expenses that my part-time job, which paid $8 per hour, couldn't cover," Kirdy said.

Everyone wants to go to college

"The demand for higher education has risen dramatically since 1985," Vedder said. "Once demand goes up and nothing else happens, that will raise prices."

According to the Department of Education, US colleges expected a total of 20.4 million students in fall 2017, about 5.1 million more than in fall 2000.

"The rewards for college have expanded and grown from 1985 to a little after 2000 and sort of leveled off in the past decade," Vedder said.

The increase in the student population indicates that the advantages college offers outweigh its overwhelming costs.

"There's a fear of failure if you didn't have a postsecondary education," Vedder said.

And yet, he said, the "advantage of a degree today is less than it was 10 years ago, because of the rising cost."

"The return on investment has fallen," he added, "and 40% of kids don't graduate within six years."

Still, it's a vicious cycle of supply and demand. The more students who want to attend college, the more the cost of college increases, and the more students borrow money.

From 2000 to 2012, the percentage of students who took out student loans jumped to 60% from about 50%, according to a report by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The report also found that they began borrowing more money too — the median cumulative loan amount rose to $20,400 from $16,500 in that time.

Theories suggest financial aid causes tuition increases

More student borrowers might partly explain why government financial-aid programs have grown enormously — but that's also causing tuition increases, according to Vedder.

In 1970, financial-aid programs "were almost nonexistent," he said. "Generally, middle-income people didn't get money from the federal government; the large majority of students did not."

In 1978, Congress passed a bill known as the Middle Income Student Assistance Act. This made all undergraduates regardless of income class eligible for subsidized loans and middle-income students eligible for Pell Grants, according to NASPA, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. More and more students started applying for financial aid, Vedder said.

"Knowing that students will get this financial-aid money, the university raises fees and takes advantage to capture that themselves," Vedder explained, referring to an idea known as the Bennett hypothesis.

Named for a former education secretary who believed that more government aid for students led directly to college cost increases, the hypothesis is an ongoing topic of political debate. But it has some vertical support in Vedder's eyes. Citing a statistic from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Vedder said that for every new dollar of federal student aid, tuition is raised by 65 cents.

Though tuition rose in 1978, so did people's incomes, making the burden of college less than it was in the 1940s, Vedder explained. But between 1978 and 2015, the burden of college began to rise again as tuition fees doubled and economic growth slowed.

State funding can't keep up with enrollment

Terry Hartle, a senior vice president of the American Council on Education, boils down the increasing cost of college to this: Many state governments have cut operating support for higher education, for at least a generation, and let colleges replace the lost revenue with tuition hikes.

"States provide less, and students and parents pay more," Hartle told Business Insider. "Studies have shown that when state support is level or increasing, tuition is flat. But when state support declines, tuition goes up. Roughly 80% of America's students attend public colleges, so it's not an exaggeration to say that the biggest determinate of the price they will pay for their education is the budgetary decisions made by state governments."

The College Board's report underscores Hartle's theory. It found that prices at public colleges and universities rise faster when government funding per student sees little growth or is slowing down. In the 2015-16 school year, appropriations — money given to a school by the government — per full-time enrolled student were 11% lower than 10 years before, when adjusted for inflation.

"For public institutions, state appropriations make up a significant portion of the college's revenue, and in recent years, the state appropriations have not been able to keep pace with enrollment," Jennifer Ma, a senior policy research scientist at the College Board, told Business Insider.

Vedder, however, doesn't think state funding cuts are the main culprit, at least at private schools.

"The total number of state dollars has gone up a little, but enrollments have risen dramatically, so on a per-student basis they're getting less money," he said. "It's a factor but not dominant, because private schools don't get money from the state."

Colleges need to pay more professors

Just as it costs money to learn, it costs money to pay teachers. Higher education is a labor-intensive industry, and productivity gains come slowly, Hartle said.

"The primary mechanism for delivering higher education at most institutions are highly educated people," he said. "Acquiring and recruiting highly educated faculty and staff costs money, especially in jobs with significant demand outside academia."

Hartle said the sorts of things that could lower these costs — such as larger classes, more adjunct faculty and fewer full-time professors, shorter hours, and fewer books in the library — were immensely unpopular with students, parents, and the public.

"Colleges spend much of their money on staff and compensation, so they have been experiencing an increasing cost of health insurance and other benefits," Ma said, adding that while university tuition allocations vary by institution, most use a large percentage of tuition to pay professors' salaries.

Vedder believes the percentage of university budgets used for instruction has fallen over the past 50 years.

"A typical university around 1970 would have allocated 40% directly for instruction, mostly professor salaries," he said. "Nowadays, it's more like 30%."

This decline in money for teachers and classes, in addition to state funding cuts, may help explain why the number of part-time faculty members has increased over time, to about 51% of total faculty in 2011 from 30% in 1975, according to research compiled by the American Association of University Professors.

With more part-time faculty members, universities can dole out lower wages and benefits, saving money for noninstructional full-time roles and a smaller group of tenured faculty, whom they can try to attract with higher salaries.

Student services, like counseling and healthcare, are growing

Many of these noninstructional roles are for student services, another increasing cost in campus budgets. Services such as academic support, personal counseling, and healthcare have been on the rise, Hartle said.

"These services are always added because of student needs, and most schools, once they begin to offer them, are very reluctant to take them away," he said, adding that there's also been a reallocation from instruction to administration expenses — known as institutional support — and research.

Vedder says there has been an explosion in the number of non-teaching personnel on campus, with several administrators at top universities making six-figure salaries with fringe benefits and secretarial support. He said about two-thirds of university budgets had nothing to do with teaching but instead go toward things like advocates, dormitories, and facilities.

Is the cost of college worth it?

The irony in the demand for a degree is palpable — by contributing to an increase in tuition, it has perhaps also made the college degree less advantageous over time.

To illustrate the diminishing value of a college degree, Vedder cited figures from the New York Fed, saying that one-third of college graduates are underemployed and 13% are in a low-paying job.

So is the cost of college worth it? It depends who you ask and how you measure the value of a degree.

"Honestly, I don't have a lot of job satisfaction, and I don't plan on being an engineer for the rest of my life," the water-resources engineer said. "In terms of getting me a job that pays well, maybe ... In terms of overall happiness, probably not."

Novo said loans were her only option for her first-choice school. A few schools offered scholarship money, but she said she felt they wouldn't help her reach her goals.

"The debt is definitely worth it," she said. "I picked my college with the hope that it would get me my first job and that it would be in my field and in NYC. I happily have a job with all those requests."

For Porcher, the regret isn't obtaining a college degree, but the lack of planning that put him over $32,000 in debt.

"Looking back, I wish I had worked for a year or two and saved up, or did half college, half work," he said. "But my job now wouldn't be possible without my degree. I'm actually the highest-ranking person without a master's or Ph.D. If I didn't have a good job, this would be an enormous burden."

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Student-loan debt in the US has grown to a staggering $1.3 trillion, and the average 2016 graduate will have to repay more than $37,000.

While it's clear that college is more expensive than ever, surprisingly, there's a correlation between the amount a student pays for tuition and their SAT score.

"The data show a correlation between higher SAT scores and lower average student debt,"according to Nitro, which conducted the study.

Nitro, an online resource that helps incoming college students plan their education financing, examined SAT scores, median student-loan debt at graduation, and median earnings 10 years after graduation at 1,300 colleges and universities.

The study found that students with higher SAT scores tend to graduate with less debt, and students with lower SAT scores tend to graduate with more debt.

They plotted the results on the interactive graph below, which also shows that higher SAT scores correlate to higher earning potential. Hover over the plot points for SAT scores.

If you take a look at the scatter plots, schools with median SAT scores on the higher end of the scale (represented by the blue-colored dots) did not fall in upper-left quadrant of the graph — those schools which had median student-loan debt of more than $30,000.

The school with the highest median student-loan debt on the graph is Livingstone College, a historically black college in North Carolina with an average SAT score of 720, and median student debt at graduation of $41,000.

The school with lowest average student debt on the graph is Berea College, a work college in Kentucky, with an average SAT score of 1125, and median student debt at graduation of $6,000.

Harvard University is the next in line with an average SAT score of 1501, and median student debt at graduation of $7,000.

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For students trying to cover the high cost of higher education today, private scholarships can be a dream come true.

But at some colleges and universities, private scholarships are running up against the nightmare of scholarship displacement financial aid policies.

To meet college costs today, most students and families cobble together a patchwork of savings and financial aid like grants, scholarships, loans, and work-study that the federal government, their state, or a college awards.

Private or outside scholarships are awarded by organizations or other entities, such as private companies, nonprofit foundations, or community groups.

Private scholarships are awarded on the basis of merit and need. For example, students might be eligible if they have a particular skill, live in a certain area, or are working toward a specific major.

Private scholarship awards can range from as little as a few hundred to thousands of dollars. For many students, they’re an important piece of the equation to cover the total cost of college, from tuition and fees to room and board, books, transportation, and miscellaneous items.

A downside of private scholarships, though, is that at many colleges these awards can displace other forms of financial aid. Students are required to tell their institution when they are awarded a private scholarship.

If the student's entire financial aid package with the private scholarship now exceeds his or her financial need as determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the student is considered "overawarded," and federal regulations may require the college to reduce some part of the student's financial aid package.

College policies, though, vary on the type of aid the institution displaces to make room for the private scholarship. According to a National Scholarship Providers Association survey of higher education institutions, 80 percent of respondents reduce self-help aid, such as loans or work-study. That’s not so bad, since a scholarship that doesn’t have to be paid back is preferable to a loan.

However, 50 percent said they also reduce institutional gift aid that doesn’t have to be paid back – meaning the student is still on the hook to take out student loans.

[Learn strategies for students too rich for financial aid but too poor for college.]

Further, some college policies require every student to have a "minimum student contribution expectation," typically between $1,500 and $3,500, which cannot be satisfied by an outside scholarship. When a student receives an outside scholarship, these institutions will reduce the aid to make sure the student still has an unmet need that equals the minimum student contribution.

Some colleges argue that their financial aid administrators need flexibility in adjusting financial aid packages for outside scholarship recipients, because the college has limited funds and must award institutional aid to the financially neediest students. A student who receives a private scholarship has less need than one who doesn't, after all.

Other schools argue that students do better academically or appreciate the education more when they have a financial stake in it.

But many private scholarship providers and student advocates decry the practice of displacement, saying that it undermines the full benefit of the scholarship by compelling students to take on debt when they shouldn't have to. Outside scholarship providers also argue that displacement makes them rethink their giving strategies if they feel the students aren’t receiving the full benefit of their awards.

[Discover four college funding sources and their effects on financial aid.]

Maryland recently became the first state in the nation to pass a law that restricts scholarship displacement at public colleges and universities in the state to only specific cases, including when a student's total gift aid surpasses their financial need. Central Scholarship – a Maryland nonprofit that awards scholarships and interest-free loans to students – initiated the bill.

Additionally, the bill states that the school can further lower the institutional grant with approval from the private scholarship provider. The only other instances under which a school may engage in scholarship displacement is if a student athlete’s institutional grant needs to be reduced to comply with NCAA rules or the private scholarship is affiliated with the institution and requires the college's assistance with selecting recipients. The law goes into effect July 1.

But what if you're a student in another state? If you receive a private scholarship, talk to your school's financial aid office about its displacement policy and see if it's negotiable. You may also want to check with the scholarship provider to see if you can delay the scholarship for a future year when your financial need may be higher.

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We hear a lot about how college is expensive, but many folks don't realize quite how costly a degree can be these days. According to the College Board, the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2016-2017 school year looked something like this:

• $9,650 for in-state public colleges
• $24,930 for out-of-state public colleges
• $33,480 for private colleges

Of course, that's just one piece of the puzzle. Room and board -- an oft-necessary component of college attendance -- averages $10,440 at public colleges and $11,890 at private ones.

When we look at these costs, it's easy to see why so many low- and middle-income families struggle to pay for college. But for a large number of higher earners, most universities are out of reach as well. According to research by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), even families earning over $100,000 a year can't afford nearly 60% of U.S. colleges.

Now IHEP defines affordability as the means to pay for college after saving 10% of one's discretionary income for the 10-year period leading up to college, combined with earnings from a student working 10 hours per week during college. Given that most folks are advised to save 10% of their income for retirement, setting aside another 10% for college is a pretty tall order. It's therefore demoralizing to learn that even those who manage to hit that threshold still wind up falling short in terms of being able to afford most learning institutions.

That said, just because some folks might very well be saving 10% of their income for college doesn't mean that they're saving in the most efficient manner possible. And that could spell the difference between affording college or winding up with a ridiculous pile of debt for privilege of having a child attend the university of his or her choice.

Find a smarter way to save

While setting aside money for college is a smart move off the bat, where you put that cash could have a huge impact on your eventual ability, or lack thereof, to pay those bills. Fidelity Investments reports that about 40% of families are now saving for college via a 529 plan, which represents an increase from previous years. And while 529s are by no means the only option for saving for college, they're a far more efficient route than savings and traditional brokerage accounts.

Though you don't get an immediate federal tax break for contributing to a 529, once you fund an account, that money gets to grow tax-free. As long as you use that money for qualified higher education purposes, you'll get to keep your ending balance in full.

Traditional brokerage accounts, by contrast, require you to pay taxes on your gains year after year. This means that if you sell anything in your account at a profit, you'll lose a chunk of those proceeds to taxes, leaving you less money to reinvest. Along these lines, if you leave your investments alone during your college savings period and only sell them off once the time comes to start tacking those tuition bills, you'll lose a portion of your eventual earnings to taxes as well.

Then there are savings accounts, which not only impose taxes on interest income but offer very little in the way of returns to begin with. These days, you'll be lucky to get a solid 1% per year out of your savings account, making it a rather inefficient tool.

Imagine you earn $100,000 a year, and sock away 10% of that, or $10,000 annually, for 10 years. With a regular old savings account, you'll grow your college fund to roughly $104,000 -- not all too impressive considering that $100,000 of that stems from principal contributions.

On the other hand, if you save in a traditional brokerage account or 529, your investments might very well generate an average annual 7% return, which would leave you with $138,000 after 10 years' time. Here's the catch though -- if you have a traditional brokerage account whose investments you sell off to access that cash, you'll lose a portion of your earnings to capital gains taxes. Assuming you're in the 25% bracket, those taxes will knock a good $10,000 off your $38,000 in gains. With a 529, however, you'll get to use that $138,000 in full, as long as it's applied to qualified college costs.

Now one major drawback of opening a 529 is that if you don't end up using that money for qualified purposes, you'll face a 10% penalty on the gains portion of your account. It's for this reason that you might consider other college savings avenues, like a Roth IRA, if you're eligible to open one. (Even if you can't fund one directly, you can always convert a traditional IRA to a Roth.)

No matter how you decide to save for college, you should do so in a manner that lets you maximize your gains and minimize your taxes. Even if you're a relatively high earner, covering the cost of college is likely to be a challenge, so the smarter you are about how you save, the better your chances of meeting your ultimate goals.

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The price of college in the US continues to tick up at a worrisome pace.

In 18 years, the cost to attend a public college is estimated to be about $54,000 a year — over $200,000 for a 4-year degree, according to a recent analysis by investment management company Vanguard. At private colleges, that figure is about $120,000 a year — nearly half a million dollars in total.

Given that enormous expense, it's no wonder many parents worry about how — and when — to start saving for college.

Some families look to 529 plans, an account that allows college savings to grow tax-free, similarly to saving for retirement in an IRA. Some states offer a full or partial tax deduction on 529 contributions as well. When the funds are used to pay for college and other qualified education expenses, withdrawals from a 529 plan are not taxed.

But the offerings in 529 plans vary from state to state, meaning families need to do their due diligence before signing up. Savingforcollege.com (SFC) takes some of the guesswork out of deciding on a plan. The site provides "5-Cap Ratings" — rating each plan from 0 to 5 — in areas such as investment performance, costs (fees and other expenses), and reliability (flexibility to make changes and the quality of financial disclosures from the program).

Still, there are additional things to keep in mind when choosing a 529 plan. If you select an out-of-state plan but live in a state with income tax, you may miss out on a valuable tax deduction. And each plan has a different fee schedule, which should be taken into consideration before making a choice.

Below, take a look at the top 10 college savings plans in America. All scores are out of a possible five points.

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10. Alaska T. Rowe Price College Savings Plan

"Accepts contributions until all account balances in Alaska's 529 plans for the same beneficiary reach $400,000,"according to SFC.

• Performance score: 4.05

• Costs score: 3.68

• Reliability score: 4.80

Sign up for the plan here »

9. Louisiana START Saving Program

"Accepts contributions until all account balances in Louisiana's 529 plan for the same beneficiary reach $500,000,"according to SFC.

• Performance score: 3.80

• Costs score: 5.06

• Reliability score: 2.30

Sign up for the plan here »

8. Nevada USAA 529 College Savings Plan

"Accepts contributions until all account balances in Nevada's 529 plans for the same beneficiary reach $370,000,"according to SFC.

• Performance score: 3.21

• Costs score: 3.76

• Reliability score: 4.93

Sign up for the plan here »

A new tool for calculating the cost of college hopes to cut down on sticker shock.

MyinTuition is an online questionnaire that produces an estimate for what families will actually pay for a student's yearly tuition — as opposed to the stated price on the college or university's website.

"By my calculation, something like 90% of households in the United States would qualify for financial aid, which would bring their price down below the $70,000 or the big numbers that you typically hear," Wellesley economics professor and MyinTuition creator Phillip Levine told WBUR.

Too few families realize the sticker price isn't what they'll end up paying, Levine found, so he created the platform to demystify the experience of finding affordable colleges.

"This tool can be particularly helpful for students from low- and middle-income families who may have misconceptions about the true cost of higher- education opportunities," the MyinTuition site reads. "The tool can show students and families that top colleges are within reach for qualified students, regardless of their financial situation."

So far, the site lets students and families explore their options at 15 schools around the US, including Dartmouth, Columbia, Vassar, Amherst, and, of course, Wellesley.

Users input a number of demographic data to determine how much financial aid they're likely to receive. That includes whether their parents are married or divorced, their parents' combined income, how much their house is worth, and the value of their savings and retirement accounts.

At the end of the survey, MyinTuition spits out a Best, Low, and High Estimate for how much parents and students will need to chip in and how much need-based scholarship they can expect to receive.

Over time, Levine hopes the tool can help high-achieving students from low-income families increase their presence at elite universities.

"Elite colleges miss too many high-achieving students who never apply because of cost misconceptions," the site reads. "MyinTuition can demonstrate that a top college is within reach — and it could even be the most affordable higher-education option."

SEE ALSO: The 24 best universities in the world

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College affordability has become the preeminent issue in higher education, as student-debt figures have hit staggering levels.

While most conversations center on ballooning tuition costs, which have long surpassed the rate inflation of other consumer goods, last year tuition costs grew at the slowest pace in decades, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Labor Department data show tuition at college and graduate school increased 1.9% for the year ended June 2017 — on par with the rate of inflation. From 1990 through 2016, the average increase was 6% a year — more than double the rate of inflation, according to the The Journal.

The factors that contribute to growing tuition prices are manifold.

• Students, rather than state governments, now absorb more of the costs of college. At public colleges and universities, schools collect more from tuition payments than from state funding, which used to be the case.
• Colleges have seen an enormous uptick in enrollment, according to World Bank figures. In 1980, the US enrollment was 53% (as a percentage of the total population of students who graduated within the last five years). In 2012 it was 94%.
• Growing college enrollment necessitates the hiring of more administrative staff, which can be costly. It also normally means that the expenditures, from state and federal government, per student is lower, again placing the burden of tuition and fees on students and families.
• An increased demand for seats in a college class also allows schools to increase tuition.

But that demand diminished in the face of increasing supply in recent years, as two- and four-year colleges increased 33% between 1990 and 2012, according to The Journal. At the same time, fewer people are enrolling in college as the job market improves.

And the amount that students can borrow in federal student loans hasn't increased since 2008. Some economists say that the higher the borrowing amount, which is dictated by Congress, the more school charge in tuition payments, because they know students have access to higher loan amounts. The flat rate in borrowing ability over the past decade may have helped to keep tuition prices down.

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal »

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Harvey Mudd College, a tiny liberal-arts school in Claremont, California, is the most expensive college in America.

With an annual price tag of $72,228 for tuition, room and board, and fees, attending Mudd for four years will run students, and their families, more than a quarter of a million dollars.

The school, which enrolls about 800 students, offers a Bachelor of Science in math, science, and engineering majors, and is considered one of the best schools in the nation for students seeking a degree in the hard sciences.

As a member of the Claremont Colleges Consortium — which includes Claremont McKenna College, Pitzer College, Pomona College, Scripps College, Claremont Graduate University and Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences — students can take classes at any of the other member schools.

Mudd has a unique approach to academics. The school not only encourages, but demands, that Mudders graduate with a strong liberal-arts background, taking just as many courses in the humanities as they must in core introductory courses in the sciences.

Harvey Mudd describes its core curriculum as "an academic boot camp in the STEM disciplines — math, physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, and engineering — as well as classes in writing and critical inquiry" that it says "gives students a broad scientific foundation and the skills to think and to solve problems across disciplines."

Harvey Mudd is selective, with an admission rate of about 13%, according to the US News & World Report. The student body is split 46% female and 54% male, with a student-teacher ratio of 8:1.

Despite its male-heavy lean, Harvey Mudd has strong representation of women in traditionally male-dominated fields.

In 2016, HMC graduated its first majority-female computer-science class. Nationally, men make up more than 84% of undergraduates majoring in computer science, according to the Computing Research Association.

And although the cost to attend the school is steep, a degree from Harvey Mudd appears to be worth it. The school routinely shows up on lists that rank the best colleges for your money, and its graduates out-earn those from Harvard and Stanford about 10 years into their careers.

SEE ALSO: The 20 best colleges for your money

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If you want to go to college, it's more expensive than ever. 

Tuition at both public and private schools in the US continues to rise at a fast clip, and Americans collectively owe more than $1.3 trillion in student loan debt. 

Using data from The Chronicle of Higher Education's interactive chart, Business Insider rounded up the least expensive college in every state. We further filtered the schools to include only the colleges and universities that were rated in the top 220 by the US News and World Report.

The ranking uses tuition data from the 2016-17 academic year and looks at each school's full sticker price: published tuition and required fees, as well as room and board. Prices listed for state colleges are in-state, for residents.

Read on to see the most affordable, highly ranked college in every state.

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Alabama — The University of Alabama

Location: Tuscaloosa, AL

Total annual cost: $20,020

• Tuition: $10,470

• Room and board: $9,550

Alaska — University of Alaska-Fairbanks

Location: Fairbanks, Alaska

Total annual cost: $15,714

• Tuition: $7,184

• Room and board: $8,530

Arizona — Arizona State University-Tempe

Location: Tempe, Arizona

Total annual cost: $21,756

• Tuition: $10,370

• Room and board: $11,386

A bachelor's degree isn't what it used to be. More and more, employers are searching for candidates with exemplary qualifications.

A 2014 CareerBuilder survey revealed that 20% of employers targeted candidates with master's degrees for jobs that previously required a bachelor's.

Earning an advanced degree is crucial within various professions, but that doesn't mean it's affordable.

If your career is ready for a shake-up, consider these options. They can help you pursue a graduate degree with affordability in mind. 

1. Ask your boss

Employers rely on a skilled workforce to succeed, and many are investing directly into their employees' personal growth. One-third of companies surveyed provide tuition reimbursement according to the same CareerBuilder survey, and 81% of those offer at least partial funding.

Asking your boss about education opportunities isn't a bold request, especially if it's framed in terms that benefit the company. Do some research to learn which course of study will enhance your performance on the job, and create a formal presentation to highlight the program's strengths. Most companies will only sanction education expenses that benefit them directly, and this strategy is a great way to show that your perspective is on point. 

2. Earn your degree online

Online learning is a valuable option for working adults who can't commit to a full-time course load, and their popularity is gaining traction.

In 2015, online degree programs accounted for about 30% of all higher education enrollment, according to a Babson Survey Research Group report. 

Distance education programs are often more affordable than their brick-and-mortar counterparts, and you won't need to worry about sacrificing time at work, hiring child care, or commuting to and from campus. 

Some master's programs may even allow you to test out of certain requirements based on your professional experience, which would lower your tuition bill.

Keep in mind that not all online programs are created equal, and it's important to earn an accredited degree that carries weight and financial reward in the workplace. Do your homework to learn which schools have the greatest return on investment (ROI). Reviewing U.S. News's 2017 national ranking report is a great place to start.  

3. Get a tax credit

Reducing your tax liability is an effective way to budget while earning a degree. Unlike deductions that lower your taxable income depending on your income bracket, tax credits provide a dollar-for dollar reduction of your income tax liability.For example, if you owe $1,000 when you file your taxes in April, a $1,000 tax credit would eliminate your debt. When it comes to education, there are a couple tax credit options:

• The Lifetime Learning Credit allows you to claim up to $2,000 of the first $10,000 in annual tuition and enrollment expenses.There is no required course load to qualify for this credit, which means that you can use it even if you're only taking a single class. This tax credit is non-refundable, which means that it can eliminate your tax burden, but you won't receive a refund for the remaining credit amount. 
• The American Opportunity Credit (AOC) allows you to claim up to $2,000 a year for education expenses, plus 25% of the next $2,000 for a grand total of $2,500. The AOC is limited to four years of schooling, and students must attend classes at least part-time. Qualified expenses include everything from tuition and fees to books, supplies, and course-related equipment. Perhaps the biggest perk is the AOC's refundable status, which allows you to receive 40% of unused tax credits (up to $1,000). For example, if you owe $1,500 in taxes, your AOC would cancel the debt, and you would receive 40% of the remaining $1,000 credit, amounting to $400. 

It's important to note that you may only claim one tax credit per year, and it's a good idea to consider your education-related expenses and enrollment status to make the right decision. 

4. Use your employee stock purchase plan 

Employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs) are used by publicly traded companies to attract and retain talent. ESPPs allow participants to purchase stock through payroll deductions at a discounted rate of up to 15%. For instance, if a share of your company's stock costs $100, you would only pay $85. In addition to savings, one of the many perks of an ESPP is flexibility. According to a Fidelity study, employees use their ESPPs for everything from paying down debt to reinvesting in retirement funds, and education is an option as well. If you currently own ESPP shares, consider funneling a portion of your investment into grad school funding. This will help you avoid dipping into emergency savings or your retirement accounts, and the initial stock purchase discount will reduce your own out-of-pocket expenses. 

5. Harness your professional strengths

Grad school isn't usually a budget-friendly expense for adult students and their families, and it's worth it to consider saving before pursuing your degree. The good news is, it's easier than ever to find flexible work. An estimated 44 million Americans have joined the gig economy, taking on side jobs to supplement their income, often remotely. In fact, an Indeed.com search for "work at home" jobs returned more than 2,800 active listings. You might even considering applying for a work-study program or teaching assistant (TA) position within your university to offset the costs. For example, Purdue University's School of Industrial Engineering awards tuition waivers to TAs working 10 to 20 hours a week. Create a list of your professional skills and talk to your advisor about on-campus opportunities. Your work experience may give you a competitive edge. 

Education is a valuable asset, and it's possible to finance your degree without sacrificing your savings. Take advantage of these opportunities and work with your academic advisor to find additional funding options. Don't miss the chance to cash in on career advancement. 

SEE ALSO: If you're living in the US, it may be cheaper to go to college in Canada or England

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Tuition fees at American colleges and universities are among the highest in the world, according to a report released Tuesday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Of the 35 member countries in the OECD average, the US has the highest average tuition at both public and private colleges.

Average public tuition in the US is $8,202 annually, compared to Chile's $7,654, the country with the second-highest tuition cost.

About one-third of countries do not charge tuition for public institutions, and in 10 countries, tuition fees are less than $4,000, according to the report.

At private colleges, the gap between US and other OECD tuition fees was even starker. America's average of $21,189 was much higher than the rest. 

For the comparison, Business Insider included countries which have both private and public colleges. The UK, for example, only has private colleges and was excluded from the chart analysis, but the OECD estimates that tuition in the UK is $12,000 annually. 

Most members of the OECD are highly developed countries with high income levels. But it doesn't include every country in the world that has both these qualities, since another charge of the group is to promote democratic ideals. As such, countries like China or Singapore are not members of the OECD. But even these highly developed countries don't have average college tuition costs as high as those that exist in the United States.

Despite the fact Americans face higher tuition costs than the rest of the world, the US does have options in place to make financing an education possible. The OECD estimates that at least 75% of US students benefit from public loans, scholarships, or grants.

SEE ALSO: America's poor performance on international tests could be traced all the way back to preschool

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The cost to attend some private K-12 schools in New York City has crept above $50,000 annually, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The rising cost in just the last five years is steep. Median tuition and fees at Manhattan private schools are $44,050 compared to $35,867 five years before, The Journal reported, citing figures from the National Association of Independent Schools.

While private school tuition regularly outpaces the rate of inflation, a 23% jump in five years is still significant, especially when noting that $50,000 tuition is higher than the average cost to attend private college in the US.

For the 2017-18 school year, the average cost of tuition and fees at private colleges is $34,699, according to U.S. News & World Report. 

Further, there are nearly 40 American colleges that cost more than $65,000 a year, a shocking figure which calls into question whether the current model of higher education is sustainable. Four years of college at $65,000 a year results in a family paying more than a quarter million dollars for four years of higher education.

Yet, if the cost of private school tuition were to hold flat at $50,000, a family who paid for one child to attend school for their primary and secondary education would pay $900,000 over the course of their pre-college schooling.

About 20% of students in Manhattan private schools received financial aid, according to the National Association of Independent Schools, compared to 90% who receive some type of financial aid at private four-year colleges.

The rising cost of private schools in Manhattan has led some to question the sustainability of their pricing model.

"It's just a bad problem getting worse," John Allman, head of private Trinity School, told The Journal. "The funding model for independent schools like ours is broken."

SEE ALSO: There are now nearly 40 colleges in the US where a 4-year degree costs more than $250,000

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Brown University has launched a campaign to raise $120 million to replace student loans with grants that don't need to be repaid, The Hill reported.

The initiative aims to take the financial burden of repayment off of aid recipients. The policy should substantially reduce the average debt burden of its graduates.

Princeton University already has a similar policy in place. Its graduates' average total indebtedness is $8,908, compared to $23,810 at Brown.

"We're committed to making a Brown education accessible to students from all income groups, so we can continue to accept the very best and brightest students from around the world,"Brown President Christina Paxson said in a press release."When students and their families are sitting at their dining room tables making decisions about where to apply to college, or whether to accept an offer of admission, we want them to know that Brown is an affordable choice."

Brown must raise $30 million before implementation of the initiative. It aims to accomplish that goal by December 2017.

SEE ALSO: How much money people borrow to attend the top 20 US colleges — and how much they earn later on

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• Bill Gates is an alum of Lakeside School, a private school in the Seattle, Washington, area where he met Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen.
• Two of Gates' kids have graduated from Lakeside School and his youngest child is currently enrolled there.
• The annual cost to attend Lakeside School is $33,280 a student for the 2017-2018 school year.

Bill Gates may not be leaving much of his $89 billion fortune to his three kids, but he is setting them up to follow in his footsteps.

Gates was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, and enrolled at Lakeside School, a private day school located on the shores of Lake Washington, when he was 13. While there, Gates discovered a love of computers and met Paul Allen, with whom he later cofounded Microsoft.

Gates' two eldest children, 21-year-old Jennifer and 18-year-old Rory, have both graduated from Lakeside and 16-year-old Phoebe is currently enrolled there. Jennifer is now a student at Stanford University.

"Lakeside was one of the best things that ever happened to me," Gates said in a speech he gave at the school in 2005. He was announcing a $40 million donation to Lakeside to help build its financial aid fund.

"The experience and insight Paul Allen and I gained here gave us the confidence to start a company based on this wild idea that nobody else agreed with — that computer chips were going to become so powerful that computers and software would become a tool that would be on every desk and in every home," he said. "If there had been no Lakeside, there would have been no Microsoft."

Gates wasn't always so fond of Lakeside, however. "In those days, Lakeside was an all-boys school where you wore a jacket and tie, called your teachers 'master,' and went to chapel every morning. For a while, I even thought about failing the entrance exam," he said in his speech.

"But I decided to do as well as I could on the test, and luckily, I got in," Gates said. "Now I'm finally prepared to say what no son ever wants to say, especially in public: 'Dad, you and Mom were right.'"

The school is now co-ed and accommodates grades 5 through 12 — a total of about 860 students. The 2017-2018 annual cost to attend is $33,280, not including additional fees for textbooks, hot lunches, a laptop, and to-and-from school transportation, which can cost up to $4,700 for a first-year Upper School student.

While more than 80% of students participate in the visual and performing arts program each year at Lakeside, the school is renowned for its excellence in STEM. Niche, a company that researches and compiles information on schools, ranks Lakeside No. 1 for best STEM high schools in Washington state, and No. 10 for best STEM high schools in America.

Whether the Gates children were admitted to the school with the help of their famous father's alum status is unclear, but the general application process for students is rigorous. According to Private School Review, Lakeside's acceptance rate is just 17%.

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Higher education doesn't come cheap in the United States — citizens collectively hold about $1.31 trillion in college loan debt.

Things are hardly this dire in certain other countries, where everything from preschool to university is paid for — at least in part — by the government.

Some governments even cover the entire cost of a college education, leaving graduates with zero debt and a clean slate to start their new careers.

Business Insider spoke with four people from different European countries to find out what it's really like to get a free education.

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France

What do you pay for university?

Public university is still free except for about €200 ($237) of fees, which include basic healthcare.

What's it like to pay so little?

We are happy and grateful to not have to think about the huge amounts of debt awaiting us after graduation. You can focus on the studies that matter to you rather than the most lucrative ones.

Are there any drawbacks?

Many students in France also have to work during their studies to afford basic things like eating and housing etc. and this can affect their success or the length of their studies compared to students whose parents can help pay for you.

— Marie-Catherine Beuth, Managing Editor, Business Insider France

Germany

What do you pay for university?

I was enrolled from 2009-2015. During this time period there was some variation in university fees. The total fee during that time was ~€500 ($592) per semester (6 months). Before and after, the university was almost "free."

What's it like to pay so little?

I have a lot of friends who studied in the UK and the USA (mostly universities which have very good ranking), who had to pay significantly more for their university.

We discussed the topic several times and actually came to the conclusion that there is little to no difference between Ivy League schools or highly ranked UK universities and my university in terms of the content covered.

This means, although I paid considerably less, I had access to the same quantity and quality of knowledge through my lectures as they did. From my perspective, this was obviously a very satisfying conclusion.

Are there any drawbacks?

The professor/student ratio was generally much higher at my university. There was less course/project work in my course, compared to the highly-ranked and expensive universities that my friends attended. 

— Andrej Guminski, Research Associate at Research Association for Energy Economics

Denmark

What do you pay for university?

Totally free. You only have to pay for the books you need.

What's it like to pay so little?

Everybody has the same opportunity to pursue a university degree no matter if they were born into rags or riches.

By removing the perception of education being an economic investment in yourself or in your children, you generally see that students choose a program that is not a necessarily the practical and obvious choice but which is what they are passionate about.

This is also one of the reasons why it is very common for students to begin on a degree and afterwards change program or university entirely within the first two semesters.

Are there any drawbacks?

With education being free, the Danish word "evighedsstuderende" has risen. The direct translation would be 'eternity student' and it refers to a person who never finishes his studies but continuously keeps changing study program year after year. 

Another potential drawback is that people don't necessarily choose a study program based on their future job opportunities.

— Daniel Borup Jakobsen, VP Marketing, Plecto

• College tuition varies at schools across the US.
• Using data from the Department of Education, we found the most expensive college in every state.

College tuition has been getting more expensive, and costs widely vary among the country's colleges and universities.

Using data from the US Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System program, we found the most expensive four-year, primarily baccalaureate and above degree-granting institution with at least 500 students enrolled in Fall 2016, based on reported tuition, board, and other costs for the 2016-2017 school year for out-of-state students.

You can check out our full list of the colleges here.

Here's the most expensive college in every state, along with the 2016-2017 total sticker price cost:

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• Midland School is a co-ed boarding school in Los Olivos, California, where in addition to completing a rigorous curriculum, students farm, clean, and explore the surrounding wilderness.
• Students and faculty have no access to cell phones during the six-week term.
• Annual tuition at Midland costs $55,300, though more than half the student body gets scholarships of around $32,000.
• Graduates have enrolled at Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, and Harvey Mudd.

Tucked in a grassy canyon along the Central Coast is a high school where students chop wood and tend livestock between their history and calculus classes.

Doubling as a working farm, the campus differs from the typical American high school in another crucial respect: No one among the faculty or the roughly 90 students ever looks at a cell phone.

Midland School, a co-ed boarding school in Los Olivos, was established in 1932. The idea, as founder Paul Squibb put it, was that a student who appreciates his material blessings, "will live a more vivid and interesting life and will be a better citizen."

The credo is reflected in the instructions given to incoming freshmen, who are encouraged to bring three important objects: an axe, a knife, and a lighter. Cell phones, meanwhile, are confiscated until the end of the six-week term.

"We know we're different and we know we're a little crazy," said Christopher Barnes, the head of school. "The question for each student and for each family is if we're your kind of crazy."

The students more or less run Midland, which has no janitorial or maintenance staff. They plant and pick about half of the food they eat on a 10-acre farm. They clean the windows, maintain the landscape, and sweep the old chapel.

Fall out of line and it's a problem, said Barnes. He cited the wood-fired showers. "When it's your job in the afternoon to go up and light a fire and make hot water, if you fail at that task  —  either you don't tend to the fire or whatever else  —  then you suffer the wrath of your peers," he said. "And you earned that wrath."

For the pleasure of all that work and study, Midland charges an eye-popping tuition of $55,300, though only about 40 percent of families pay it. More than half the student body gets scholarships of around $32,000.

Midland graduates reliably move on to well-regarded universities, including Stanford and Harvard. Many later report being profoundly changed by their rustic high school experiences. Yet even during a time of growing anxiety over the role of technology in young people's lives, Midland has struggled to keep its enrollment numbers up.

That's partly because private school applications have been on the decline generally. There's also the matter of boarding  —  the students stay in spare wooden cabins  —  an idea that doesn't sit well with many California parents. And in some cases, Barnes said, prospective students have recoiled at the no-phone policy. "Thirteen- and 14-year-olds have a veto," he noted. "That didn't use to be true."

Still, a number of Midland students said that while the initial withdrawal was difficult, they ultimately found the phoneless life to be almost liberating.

Jade Feldsher, a 16-year-old from Rancho Cucamonga, said that before joining Midland she worried about how devices had overtaken her social life. "I thought that everybody was becoming a phone zombie, and I knew that I'd become one too, and I did," she said.

"It sounds really cheesy," she added, "but I think I'm happy to not have it."

This article is from the California Sun, a newsletter that delivers California's most compelling news to your inbox each morning  —  for free. Sign up here.

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• College tuition varies widely from school to school.
• Using data from the US Education Department, we found the most expensive college in every state.

College tuition and other costs vary widely from school to school.

Using data from the US Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System program, we found the most expensive four-year, primarily baccalaureate and above degree-granting institution with at least 500 students enrolled in Fall 2016, based on reported tuition, board, and other costs for the 2016-2017 school year for out-of-state students.

Here's each of those colleges, along with their 2016-2017 sticker price, location, public/private sector status, enrollment, and the average cost for a student with some form of scholarship or financial aid from the school or government to attend in 2015-2016 (the most recent year for which data are available.)

SEE ALSO: The biggest company in almost every US state

Alabama — Spring Hill College

Tuition, room, board, and other costs, 2016-17: $52,854

Average price paid by a student with aid/scholarship, 2015-2016: $20,441

Location: Mobile, AL

Sector: Private non-profit

Enrollment: 1,476

Alaska — University of Alaska, Anchorage

Tuition, room, board, and other costs, 2016-17: $37,304

Average price paid by a student with aid/scholarship, 2015-2016: $11,860

Location: Anchorage, AK

Sector: Public

Enrollment: 16,318

Arizona — University of Arizona

Tuition, room, board, and other costs, 2016-17: $50,367

Average price paid by a student with aid/scholarship, 2015-2016: $16,466

Location: Tucson, AZ

Sector: Public

Enrollment: 43,161