I realized after writing about the financial aid practices at Ivy Plus universities, elite non-Ivy Plus colleges and universities, HBCUs, and large state universities, that there was a distinctive group of colleges that I had left out.

Community colleges are widely known for their low tuition. At the same time, my findings had surfaced a surprising revelation (to me) that financial aid practices for the first four income quintiles (from lowest to highest) did not always result in a low net price for the lowest income students.