Sharon Y. Hart, Ph.D.
Founder, Affordable U.S. Education, LLC
Dr. Hart spent 40+ years in higher education. Not as a consultant looking in. As an executive running institutions.
She served as president of multiple public colleges and universities in the U.S. and U.S. territories. She ran RIT Kosovo (A.U.K.), a private American university in Europe. Her career spans the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific, and the Caribbean.
She's sat on regional and national higher education commissions. She's shaped policy on accreditation, institutional accountability, transfer pathways, and college affordability.
The WICHE Victory
Dr. Hart led the advocacy that brought U.S. Pacific Territories and Freely Associated States into WICHE Student Access Programs. First new membership in 25 years.
Pacific Island students can now attend WICHE member schools at in-state tuition rates instead of out-of-state rates.
This saves students and families millions of dollars every year.
Most recently, she served as Senior Education Advisor with USAID in Jordan, advising on higher education systems and policy until early 2025. She's advised American families overseas on U.S. college planning and worked with international students at EducationUSA fairs.
The Parent Perspective
She raised three kids through college. She saw what happens when families don't plan. She also saw how strategic choices can eliminate debt entirely.
Through AUSE, she brings an independent approach to college affordability analysis. No commissions from institutions. She works solely for students and families.
Dr. Hart currently lives in Slovenia and works with clients globally.
Why Families Seek Strategic Reviews
Institutional roles limited what Dr. Hart could say publicly about how families can work the system to their advantage. Presidents represent their institutions first.
Independent expertise enables unbiased analysis. There are no enrollment targets to meet, no institutional priorities to protect, no referral relationships to maintain.
Decades of leadership across multiple institution types allow pattern recognition that most advisors simply cannot offer. Dr. Hart has seen how transfer policies actually work, how aid calculations vary, and where the system creates avoidable costs for families who don't know better.
Strategic reviews provide the independent analysis that families cannot get from institutions with competing interests.
Work with Dr. Hart
For complex college affordability decisions where mistakes are costly.
Book a Strategic College Affordability Review