The rules behind college admissions are meant to be opaque at selective colleges and universities, as bestselling author (and my Future U. cohost) Jeff Selingo documents in his book Who Gets In and Why.

Because the rules have been written this way, changing them—for example, by giving all students clear information up-front on what they would pay in tuition should they get admitted and enroll—isn’t as straightforward as it sounds.

In part, that’s because at many colleges, the administration itself doesn’t know the answer to that question until, at minimum, it sees who actually applies for admission.