A talk with Planning for College author Tony Broh

“I read with great interest your findings about college cost transparency. While few colleges have posted a net price calculator on their Web sites (a must-do by Oct. 29. 2011), there is a new consumer service that does calculate financial aid eligibility and out-of-pocket costs (net price) personalized to a student’s specific academic and financial circumstances. StudentAid.com’s College Cost & Planning Report offers a 10-college side-by-side net price comparison of colleges of a student’s choice to help them and their families make well-informed decisions about where to apply to colleges. The College Cost & Planning Report is a vital first step that helps families determine how to make smart decisions about which colleges best fit a student’s academic dreams and the family’s bank account. Based on more than two years of research, this personalized service was tested on 25 million student scenarios and with 28,000 families to ensure accuracy. The service is low cost and thanks to support from non-profit USA Funds it is provided free to low income students through a program called Access for All. The same technology backbone (3 million lines of software code) power StudentAid.com’s net price calculator technology for colleges. StudentAid.com is merging with Think Ahead to provide NPC technology to colleges. Like you, we want to help families be more conscientious consumers and support a new model that provides greater cost and outcome transparency. To date, the consumer conversation about the value of knowing net price before applying has been barely a whisper. We appreicate MassINC’s study of college planning and its clarion call for a new model to help students and their families avoid crushing post-college debt and to encourage more students to get a college education.”