Compare costs of postsecondary education | Careers and education | Financial literacy | Khan Academy

So let's talk a little bit about how to compare costs based on all of your college options. The biggest piece of cost is going to be your tuition, and then of course your living expenses: room and board, where you're going to live, and what you're going to eat, and how you're going to eat it.

Then there's a bunch of other expenses. There's going to be travel and entertainment, and everyone needs a little bit of entertainment. Especially if you're going to a college, or one of your options is to go to college where you might have to travel by air, well that could get a little bit more expensive.

And then there's all these other incidentals: things like textbooks and lab fees, etc. So the first thing I would do is, when you get your various options - and it's good to have as many options as possible, within reason - is try to add all of that up.

Now, one thing I want to make sure you keep in mind is the sticker cost. You know when a university just says, "Our tuition is X," that's not necessarily what you have to pay. There are many ways for you to pay it. In many cases, if you come from a family that does not have a high income, you can get significant financial aid.

Now that financial aid can be in the form of scholarships; it could be just a straight-up grant based on your family's need, or it could be some type of a loan. Once you have your options and you know what type of aid you can get for your different options, then you need to just compare them.

Generally speaking, before you consider financial aid, your least expensive options are probably going to be something like going to a community college close to home. Even if your goal is a four-year degree, in many states - I know out here in California - you can go to a community college for two years, and it's actually kind of a program to transfer then into four-year colleges.

So that could be an option that could be cheaper. You could live at home; the tuition tends to be a lot cheaper at the local community college. When you're ready to transfer, you could transfer. The next most expensive option, or the next higher price option, is usually going to some form of a state school, either a city school or a state school where they give a special tuition for in-state residents.

If you're strong academically, there might also be schools that give you academic scholarships. Then you have a bunch of private schools that usually have higher tuition than for sure the state schools and the community colleges.

There the key is not to make your decision until you know whether they're going to give you financial aid and what kind of financial aid that is. Obviously, scholarships and grants are a lot better than loans, but once you have all of that information, you can make your decision.

Don't make your decision purely on cost or purely on price. It might be tempting to say, "Oh, I'm going to end up with a four-year degree no matter what! Let me just take the cheapest possible option." That might be a good idea, but ask a lot of questions.

It might turn out that maybe one option is a little bit more expensive even after you consider financial aid, but when you talk to recent graduates, they say, "Hey, that was an amazing experience! It helped me grow so much." Maybe the career services there, or there's just a lot of recruiters that go to that campus that would not go to the other campuses, and so their job prospects are a lot better.

It's not just the cost; you're making an investment in yourself. So it's not just the cost; you have to see the return on that cost. You know, if you're investing in two stocks, it wouldn't be that the dollar stock is better than the two dollar stock if the two dollar stock is going to give you a better return.

Same thing about colleges. Now, I won't say the expensive one is always going to be the best one either. You really have to think about what you're going to be putting in and then what you think you'll likely get out, and also where you’re going to thrive.

Because if you go to a place where you're not happy, where you're not engaged, well then that's really kind of setting yourself up for a not optimal situation.