Colleges and Universities Employ the College Board's Net Price Calculator

Dec. 2011

Southwestern News

Hundreds of colleges and universities across the United States are utilizing the College Board’s Net Price Calculator to assist families in understanding the true costs of higher education.

The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 requires that college and university websites offer customized approximations of college costs based on standardized inputs — family size and amount of savings, for example. With this tool, students and families can see the approximate financial aid they might receive and how it decreases the institution’s “list price.” Its purpose is to give prospective students a clearer picture of the net price, or actual cost, of attending a particular institution.

The College Board’s Net Price Calculator allows colleges and universities to update the calculator with their financial aid awarding practices and policies. Students enter financial data about their family and academic data about themselves into the calculator, which then computes an estimated financial aid package for that student based on how the student’s characteristics match up with the financial aid awarding practices of the institution.

The calculator’s results estimate out-of-pocket expenses for the family instead of an expected family contribution. These results are intended to help families make sound, informed education choices.

More than 300 institutions in 48 states and the District of Columbia are using the College Board’s Net Price Calculator. Professionals in college counseling and in financial aid administration at colleges and universities also are finding the tool helpful. Click here to see a list of colleges in your state that are using the calculator.

“We selected the College Board’s Net Price Calculator for its flexibility,” said Brian Malone, director of financial aid at the University of New Mexico. “The tool allows a logic-based set of rules that allows us to reproduce our scholarship offer criteria in addition to federal and state funds. While the tool allows this level of complexity, it was also simple enough that we were able to do the set up in our office without a tremendous learning curve. Overall, we felt this was a good tool to allow students to get an understanding of what it costs to go to school, and what resources may be available to them in order to make attending college a reality.”

The calculator also offers several benefits to students and families:

• Low- and middle-income students will explore a broader set of colleges if they can envision affordability.

• Higher-income families will gain a realistic perspective on the cost of college and plan accordingly.

• All students will make better, more informed choices as to what college to attend because they will have accurate information on how much it will really cost.