The [financial] calculators will also lay bare some institutions’ methods for distributing financial aid and could lead to conversations about how those methods reflect colleges’ values. Students — and parents, faculty members, board members or anyone else — can experiment with the calculator to see whether an improvement in test scores or grades, or a change in a family’s financial status, would make a significant difference. And prospective students can do the same at other colleges where they might apply, leading to an increase in comparison shopping and making a competitive financial aid policy important earlier in the process than it might otherwise have been. “This is a win for the consumer, and I think long-term it’s a win for institutions that actually do provide competitive financial aid,” said Daniel Lugo, dean of admission and financial aid at Franklin & Marshall College, which recently launched its calculator for need-based aid. “There’s going to be a shaking out. There are a lot of places that maybe on paper, from their sticker price, look like an affordable choice. Once people see what their package looks like, they’re going to get the truth about their institution.” In the past, the details of financial aid awards — or even their broad outlines — were available to only the admissions and financial aid offices. With the calculator, and some curiosity and persistence, anyone could put together a chart of how aid is awarded, generally speaking: the difference between the award for a wealthy but high-achieving student versus an average student with more financial need, or the monetary value of a tenth of a grade point or 100 points on the SAT.
Be sure to read the whole article on a new federal requirement that colleges display “net price calculators,” which prospective students can use to estimate how much they will have to pay after federal or institutional grants.