University Times

Pitt is developing a new tool to help prospective students estimate the bottom line cost of coming to the University.

Under the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act, institutions that participate in federal financial aid programs will be required to post a calculator online that will enable students to compare apples to apples when it comes to college costs for first-time undergraduate students.

The release of a net price calculator template in late October by the U.S. Department of Education triggers the start of a two-year time period during which institutions must comply by posting a calculator online. Schools may use the template calculator (available at http://npc.inovas.net/institution/) or develop their own, as long as any custom tool includes the same elements.

Betsy A. Porter, director of the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid (OAFA), said the University’s computing and institutional research staff are collaborating on a custom tool rather than opting for the Department of Education template.

How long it will take to complete Pitt’s net price calculator remains to be seen, but the University will meet the October 2011 deadline, Porter said. “If it’s ready to go early, we will post it early.”

The basic formula is simple: The price of attendance minus grant aid, taking into account tuition and fees, books and supplies, room and board and personal expenses as well as a student’s eligibility for financial aid.

When students enter their own information into the calculator, they will receive an estimated net price, based on what similar students paid in the prior year.

In spite of the seeming simplicity of the calculation of cost minus financial aid, at Pitt there is no one-size-fits-all solution, Porter said.

“It will make the task more complex for a University like ours that has a variety of tuitions,” Porter said. “Some institutions are going to be really fortunate — they have one campus, one tuition, one room and board [charge], one fee.”

She said the final calculator would indicate that the net price is impacted by a student’s choices such as meal plan and residence hall options.

In addition, the calculation of net costs at Pitt’s regional campuses would differ from the Pittsburgh campus figures because tuition, fees and room and board costs vary, as well as because the regionals each have autonomous financial aid offices, Porter said.

Regional campus sources say planning for their calculators remains in the early stages and will follow Pittsburgh’s lead.

Prospective students already can find basic information on tuition and fees on Pitt web sites. The University participates in a voluntary system of accountability known as College Portrait. Clicking on the College Portrait link at www.oafa.pitt.edu leads to information including details on tuition, fees and financial aid.

College Portrait, Porter said, presents a variety of information in a user-friendly format. “It gives in a really clear, clear way from the consumer perspective things schools should be putting out there.”

The net price calculator will supplement that information, she said.

Porter views the new net price calculator as a convenience for college shoppers. In addition to being posted on each school’s web site, the net price calculators will be listed online by the Department of Education.

“It will give families one place to go to reasonably assess what that net price would be,” rather than wade through individual college web sites, Porter noted.

The net price calculator also helps remove some of the guesswork by giving an estimate of the amount of financial aid a student could reasonably expect.

“Financial aid is a very individual situation,” Porter said, noting that the net price calculator will force the University to look at categories of students and the typical eligibility for financial aid for students in those categories.

Family finances can change dramatically between the time a high school student begins searching for a college and the time a decision is made. That makes pinning down potential financial aid difficult under the best of circumstances.

The calculator may be a good tool for comparing college costs, but unless users enter accurate financial information, they could get an inaccurate estimate.

Overall, Porter said, having the calculator will be better than not having it. The calculator could help dispel misperceptions that colleges are too expensive for the vast majority of Americans, she said. “This may give some sense of the reality of the cost of education and help families recognize that not every school is in that category of big, private, prestigious, high-cost institutions.”

—Kimberly K. Barlow