What High Schoolers and Their Parents Know About Public 4-Year Tuition and Fees in Their State (NCES 2019-404)

This Statistics in Brief describes high school student perceptions of the cost of college using data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09). The analyses examine the accuracy of students' and parents' estimates of public 4-year college tuition and mandatory fees in their states by comparing their estimates with actual tuition and fee amounts obtained from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The report also examines students' perceptions about college affordability and their plans to enroll in college.