Over the past year, the authors have discussed college prices, college quality, and student financial aid with elected officials and staff from several state legislatures, financial aid administrators from a variety of campuses, and policy analysts from Washington DC advocacy organizations. They have also been able to informally gain insights at other events involving corporate and nonprofit college scholarship providers, grassroots college-access advocates, and even some Wall Street analysts attending an investment conference. These audiences are not a scientific sample, but their perspectives and impressions are intriguing nonetheless. The discussions piqued the authors' curiosity. To what extent were the opinions they heard similar to those of the general public? And were these selected audiences correct in their impressions of what the wider public thinks? The authors engaged a polling firm to conduct some online surveys that would help them answer some of the questions that had emerged. In this article, the authors describe some of the consistencies and discrepancies that have been most interesting and perplexing to them.