On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education released new and startling lists of public and private college tuition costs.

At the top of the College Affordability and Transparency List of four-year private schools?

Bates College here in Lewiston. Cost per academic year: $51,300.

At the top of the tuition list for four-year public schools is the main campus of Pennsylvania State University. Cost per year for in-state students: $14,416.

No one should make a college decision based on these listed costs alone because the federal agency’s method to quantify costs is not equal.

For instance, the cost listed for Bates includes room and board. The cost listed for Penn State does not, nor is there any information about the base tuition cost out-of-state students might expect to pay at this public university.

According to David Bergeron, the Education Department’s deputy assistant secretary for policy, planning and innovation, the information contained on the agency’s multiple lists is useful as a starting comparative shopping point. It’s not the checkout line.

The lists and comparisons are definitely worth a look.

The lowest tuition for a private four-year college in the U.S. is zero dollars, at Webb Institute on the north shore of New York’s Long Island. The institute is a specialty engineering college for students interested in naval architecture and marine engineering. The market for students keen on designing the next America’s Cup yacht is pretty slim, though, which means the zero dollar tuition is attractive to an exceptionally limited audience.

The lowest tuition for a public four-year college in this country is Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas, at a cost of $430. This is also a niche school, with a 1,000-member student body of American Indians and Alaska natives focused on teaching, business administration and environmental sciences.

The more useful information on the highest-to-lowest lists is the net price of individual schools for an academic college year.

If the average amount of grants and scholarships is calculated into the annual cost, the highest-priced private four-year college in the country is the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, a multi-campus school of research and medicine, at a net cost of $24,192.

The national average net cost is $10,747.

The lowest net price tuition in the nation is Sitting Bull College on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, at $938 per year, with a school enrollment of about 300 students.

The Education Department lists are complex. In addition to information on four-year colleges, there is information about two-year colleges and rate comparisons for tuition increases across the country in recent years.

The federal agency is working to augment the current lists with information about on-time graduation rates, median loan debt incurred by graduates, and students’ job placement rate.

The lists also contain information comparing each state’s spending for public colleges with the national average, and the rate of change state-to-state since 2003.

In the last year calculated, Maine had far fewer in-state grants available to students than the average public college in this country, and higher in-state tuition and associated fees for first-time, full-time undergrads. That’s not a good place to be.

The entire purpose of collecting and comparing information about colleges is to help students make informed decisions, according to the Education Department, and since the cost of college is often the most significant part in making these decisions, the lists are certainly helpful.

Unfortunately, the Education Department released the lists months after most students and their families have already committed to colleges for the coming fall term, but as information is added and updated, it will be resourceful central clearinghouse to review cost, debt and job placement.

Anyone planning to attend college ought to take a look. And anyone interested in knowing how taxpayer support of public schools in Maine compares to the rest of country ought to take a look, too.

[email protected]

The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.

U.S. Department of Education College Affordability and Transparency Lists: http://collegecost.ed.gov/