Is MIT or UVA More Affordable After Financial Aid?

For lower- and middle-income families, MIT can be surprisingly affordable despite its much higher sticker price.

MIT tends to favor families whose income or assets make private-college aid especially meaningful, including many out-of-state students who would receive little state support at UVA. Financial aid is recalculated from your family’s actual finances, so home equity, savings, business ownership, siblings in college, and noncustodial-parent information can still affect the result.

UVA can be the less expensive option for Virginia residents.

For non-Virginia residents, UVA’s lower published price advantage largely disappears because of its higher out-of-state tuition and more limited state-based assistance. In that situation, an admitted student with demonstrated need may find MIT’s institutional grant considerably more generous. The most useful comparison is each school’s net price calculator using the same tax and asset information; compare the estimated family contribution, not the headline cost.