TICAS Takes an Early Look at Net Price Calculators
By October 2011, every university in the U.S. will be required to have a Net Price Calculator available online for students and parents to use. Net Price Calculators allow students and parents to calculate their expected cost of attendance after grants and scholarships have been taken into consideration.
The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) recently released a report that takes an early look at Net Price Calculators that have already been made available on college websites. Using a sample of 16 colleges, TICAS compiled their findings and made recommendations for colleges to make the calculators easy to find, use, and understand, as well as to maintain the privacy of students’ and parents’ information.
“While the ’sticker price’ for most colleges is relatively easy to find, students only receive individualized information about financial aid after they apply and are accepted. Having an early estimate of ‘net price’– the cost of attendance minus grants and scholarships – can help students and their families make more informed decisions at key points in this high-stakes process,” the authors state in the overview of the study.
TICAS made the following recommendations:
- Make net price calculators easy for prospective students and their families to find.
- Create net price calculators that allow prospective students and their families to easily get and view results.
- Make the results from net price calculators easy for prospective students and their families to understand and compare.
- Protect prospective students’ information and clearly communicate how that information will be used.
The results page from the College Board’s Net Price Calculator, created in collaboration with Overture Technologies, was featured as an example in the study (see image above). To learn more about the College Board’s Net Price Calculator, visit their website.
