September 25, 2025

Deciphering High Sticker Prices with Phil Levine

Very few students actually pay the full sticker price, but this figure may discourage students from applying. In this episode, Phil Levine explores the consequences of high sticker prices and how to approach them.

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About the Episode

In this episode, Wellesley College economist and MyinTuition founder Phil Levine breaks down the difference between sticker price and net price, explaining why most families actually pay far less than the numbers making headlines. He highlights how misconceptions about cost can discourage students from applying and why simplifying the process is essential for improving equity in education.

Phil also shares practical advice for building a balanced college list and describes how middle-income students often qualify for significant aid. He also gets into broader trends shaping tuition, merit awards, and college affordability, and encourages families to make decisions based on true costs rather than headlines.

Mentioned in This Episode

Guest

Phil Levine

Phillip Levine is the Katharine Coman and A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Economics at Wellesley College, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has also served as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Phil received a BS degree with honors from Cornell University and a PhD from Princeton University. His most recent book, A Problem of Fit: How the Complexity of College Pricing Hurts Students – and Universities (University of Chicago Press, 2022) analyzes the system of pricing in higher education and ways that we can change it to improve access. Levine is also the founder and CEO of MyinTuition Corp., a non-profit organization that supplies a vastly simplified financial aid calculator to dozens of colleges and universities.

Host

Will Geiger

Will Geiger is the co-founder of Scholarships360 and has a decade of experience in college admissions and financial aid. He is a former Senior Assistant Director of Admissions at Kenyon College where he personally reviewed 10,000 admissions applications and essays. Will also managed the Kenyon College merit scholarship program and served on the financial aid appeals committee. He has also worked as an Associate Director of College Counseling at a high school in New Haven, Connecticut.Will earned his master’s in education from the University of Pennsylvania and received his undergraduate degree in history from Wake Forest University.