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Calculating the tab of a college sheepskin
How much will going to college cost? We all know that tuition-and-fee prices have been rising faster than the rate of inflation. The annual college tuition-and-fee tab has risen at an average annual rate of some 6% over the past decade while consumer prices are up about 2.5% a year. Yet unlike a computer or a home it isn't easy to figure out the real price tag of a college education until your student has made a choice of where to go..
Still, there are some calculators that help. The single best resource is Finaid.org. It offers a wealth of calculators that cover everything from figuring out how much college costs to how much you'll need tp meet the annual bill. I've spent a lot of time over the years on its calculators.
It's most popular are the College Cost Projector, the Savings Plan Designer (Flat Contribution), the Expected Family Contribution and Financial Aid Calculator, and the Loan Calculator.
The Expected Family Contribution and Financial Aid Calculator is especially useful. It gives you a preview of FAFSA--the federal financial aid application--and what you can expect. In other words, it gets to the heart of the real bill for college.
It's a safe bet you'll be shocked at how much money colleges expect from you. Many families feel they're living on the financial edge. It's tough to pay the monthly bills. But according to the numbers spewed out by FAFSA, you're living fat and easy with plenty of money to contribute.
The College Board is another resource for calculators. The website isn't as easy to navigate and a number of the calculators are basic. But it covers the important issues, including a repayment schedule for parent loans.
The most intriguing calculator is its net price calculator. At the moment it's disaspointing because it offers only a few colleges that are using its net price calculator. It's a tool for giving a realistic estimate of the "out-of-pocket" costs to attend a specific college, such as the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Jamestown College in North Dakota.
The information should get better with time, too. Congress mandated that colleges and universities publish their "net price" calculator by the end of October, 2011. This study from the Institute for College Access & Success into 16 net price calculators suggests a lot more needs to be done.
We found a great deal of variation in how easy these calculators would be for prospective college students and their families to find, use, and understand. Some calculators were prominently placed on their colleges' websites, made it simple for students and parents to get results, and clearly communicated likely costs, available financial aid, and net price. Meanwhile, many other calculators were difficult to locate, required detailed financial information that students and parents would have to look up, and presented results in ways that could lead users to believe that a particular college is more affordable than it likely would be for them.
Most of the calculators you've mentioned are not very accurate or personalized to a student's academic and financial circumstances.
However, many institutions are innovating to provide students and families with a much clearer picture of what they might pay so they can make a sound decision about how best to advance a student’s education.
The most accurate calculators, offered by colleges such as West Virginia University, the University of Arkansas, Cornell U, Yale, and about 300 others so far, go well beyond the federal minimum requirements to determine not only a student's eligibility for grant aid and net price but also calculate work-study, federal loans, and Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits (often in English and Spanish).
Hundreds of post-secondary institutions of all types and sizes have posted or are in the process of installing net price calculators that far exceed the minimum NPC requirement.
For example, the University of Arkansas’ net price calculator determines not only a prospective student’s aid eligibility and net price, but also details an individual’s available financial resources, including work-study and federal loans. Here's the NPC of the University of Arkansas:
https://universityofarkansas.studentaidcalculator.com/survey.aspx
Purdue University in Indiana has been a leader in offering a net price calculator that allows a student to email her or his results so they can engage in substantive discussions with family members or school counselors.
West Virginia University, Newman University in Kansas, and Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio are among a dozen colleges whose veteran-friendly NPCs calculate Post 9/11 GI Bill and Yellow Ribbon benefits.
Newman University explains its military-friendly net price calculator:
http://news.newmanu.edu/2010/09/02/newman-university-among-first-in-nati...
A Spanish language option is not a requirement for NPC. Nevertheless some institutions are offering Spanish translation with one quick click on the calculator. Many others will do the same during the next few months.
Two Ivy League colleges, which took the initiative to modify their need analysis and packaging to make themselves more affordable, are going the extra mile to ensure those initiatives are incorporated into their NPCs. Another leading Ivy League institution offers a calculator that takes family farm ownership into special account.
Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania provides a net price calculator that even estimates a student’s monthly re-payment of federal education loans to help families better evaluate college affordability and make informed decision about which college is the best fit for their personal circumstances. We know of at least 13 institutions whose NPCs determine the total cost of a degree and we expect hundreds of others to adopt this practice.
One college in North Carolina provides NPC users video instructions, while another in Minnesota offers a graphical representation of a student’s cost.
Although the federal NPC mandate only requires net price estimates for first-time, full-time students, Southern New Hampshire University is among the first to provide an NPC that caters to populations other than first-time, full-time students. As many as 1,000 colleges are planning to post NPCs designed to help different student populations, such as working professionals.
Some schools, such as Berea College in Kentucky, offer a very early estimator for students in 9th grade and younger. These early estimators may help motivate students to work hard during high school and encourage families to save for college.
Lastly, but very importantly, several college administrators, representing nearly 100 campuses, plan to configure their NPCs in coordination with new “borrow less†programs. The connection between NPCs and “borrow less†programs will grow.
While all net price calculators are created equally, there are many institutions exceeded the federal minimum requirements to provide students the most accurate early insight possible. The state of West Virginia, for example, is supporting its public colleges to encourage them to use the most sophisticated NPC technology because of the benefits they'll provide students and the colleges.
