Grodsky, Eric and Melanie T. Jones. 2004. <em>Real and Imagined Barriers to College Entry: Perceptions of Cost.</em> Social Science Research 36:745&#8212;766.<br />
<br />
This study uses data from the 1999 National Household Education Survey (NHES:99) to examine what parents with a child between 6th and 12th grade know about college costs. Grodsky and Jones find that less-educated and low-income parents and African-American and Latino parents are least willing to give a college cost estimate when asked. Disadvantaged parents who provided a cost estimate, however, tend to overestimate tuition by two to three times the actual cost. These findings suggest that parental errors in cost estimation may affect students' perceptions of college affordability.