Does your student's level of academic success factor into the amount of money you pay for her college education? You bet. If there's an "immutable law" buried in the maze of counter-intuitive and contradictory financial aid guidelines, it is this: The better the student, the cheaper the degree."We have visited with hundreds of parents over the last eight years and the nearly universal chorus is, "Can we afford private college?" Given that the average private college is now $44,000 and the average in-state public college is $20,000 (out-of-state publics average $37,000) the answer would seem obvious. But like many aspects of college planning, what appears to be so, isn't.
