I think it's backwards.

Parent Cafe
1

What is backward? The entire idea that you (the parents) don’t know how much any given college is going to cost until your child is accepted there.

I’ve been thinking about this all day (long commute, boring lecture class, lots of time to churn it over in my head).

So many of the problems with understanding how much a college is going to cost FOR YOU stem from the fact that you simply don’t know until you go through the entire rigamarole of Fafsa, CSS, your kid writing endless essays, applying for scholarships, waiting waiting waiting.

THEN the school tells you how much it thinks you should pay after you’re already emotionally and financially in bed with them (so to speak).

What if you could run a price calculator at any school you wanted that told you EXACTLY how much you would pay for the next for years on the assumption that you kid was accepted? And this number was guaranteed.

You could even make it a Common App style model where you put in all the information at the get go on one site (kid’s grades, your income, etc), and then any time your kid says “I’d like to go to Duke” you can push the button for Duke and Duke will say, hello, for you it will be $70k/year.

Black and white. No piecrust promises, no broken dreams. That’s your number.

And you could do this with as many colleges as you want, before your kid applies. Hey look, New College of Florida says it’s 25k all in for us-that one stays on the list of schools to apply to (this is metaphorical, of course).

You could even run a sort that shows you the colleges sorted from least to most expensive for you, and then choose based on your comfort level.

Do you think it would change things to know upfront before you kid even applies exactly how expensive a school would be for you for four years?

2

@MotherOfDragons

At least there are net price calculators now. When my kids applied, it was truly a shot in the dark.

The net price calculators aren’t perfect, but they are a good move in the right direction.

3

We all know the NPC’s are a bit of a joke. No guarantees there. How many threads have we seen where the parents discount an accurate NPC or are blindsided by an inaccurate one?

I’m talking cold, hard, in writing guarantees before you kid applies.

This is a thought experiment-I’m under no illusions that I can change the system.

I just like to ask “what if”.

4

It would still have to be contingent upon all your information being correctly entered. It seems complicated, what with the NCP issues, larger than usual assets, etc. Are you assuming a computer could crunch all the data and make a decision absent any human element? And what about merit scholarships? Granted, for Ivies and others which don’t award any, it’s easy enough.

5

I think a lot of people would welcome it. You know costs before stepping foot on a campus, thus avoiding several campus visits to colleges that don’t make the cut. Also families could focus on a smaller list which would then lead to a smaller number of applications. However I think many colleges wouldn’t go for it. The lower tier colleges may use the competitive scholarships to gain the higher stats kid, or that strong student athlete. Higher tier colleges want to maintain their high level of applications (although it could help with yield). A standard would have to set where colleges would see more than one benefit.

6

Yes. Absolutely. Assuming you have the ability to enter the data correctly, spitting a number back out at you should be a programming cake walk.

Merit scholarships-either make them automatic based on a specific criteria that you can enter in the initial questionnaire (first gen college, NMSF, test scores, etc) or get rid of them entirely and funnel that money towards hiring and retaining excellent professors. Or lowering the overall price tag.

The crazy competition for merit scholarships-do any of you going through that think it’s a good thing? For the ones that are getting them it’s a mix of relief and guilt, for the ones not getting them it’s just a bitter pill to swallow, and your kid feels judged and lacking (and that’s crazy, because these are all great kids).

7

Well as long as people feel the need to chase after prestige and the same 20
colleges in order to feel successful the competition will continue . For many it becomes a game to rack up scholarships and acceptances as some validation of their worth as a parent . JMO

8

This can probably be done for most applicants at most schools. Of course, unusual finances at CSS Profile schools may require human review. A school may also have human review if the applicant is targeted for merit or preferential packaging, but these could just improve the offer from the base.

9

I think a lot of people are “racking up scholarships” because they are really afraid of how much a school might cost. I see this happening much more than bragging rights. Most of the super prestigious schools don’t even offer merit scholarships.

Plus I think a lot of them believe the hype, think they’ll get magical rainbow scholarships, the kid falls in love, and then they’re admitted and get the bill and oh shoot, now I have to pay it.

I really wonder how well hype and prestige would fare against cold hard, individualized numbers.

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  The advantage of being a non donut non FA family is that it is clear from the outset, that the computer says no, it fortunate in more ways than one, to be able to tell your kid no clearly from the beginning. That never stops the magical thinkers though, because I am quite often gobsmacked by the expectations of even high earners on CC.
11

I disagree that one needs to apply to 15-20 schools to find an affordable option. It’s fairly easy to predict if you will receive merit or not . In terms of a kid falling in love with a school and not being able to pay for IMO it’s a huge disservice to allow a student to apply for a school that there is a good chance you can’t afford to pay for.

12

It sure would be nice to have that list up front!

13

^^That’s in direct contrast to what we see on this site every day. And I bet the longtime posters see the same dumpster fires every season, despite the apparent wealth of information on here.

Something needs to change-trillions in debt, boomerang generation, only 50% of kids ever graduate overall.

It’s not successful, what’s going on now, by my metric. I think it needs to be more of a consumer driven model.

14

@MotherOfDragons I don’t believe that’s in direct contrast of what we see on this site everyday . What I do see is people chasing prestige , or believing that just because they have great stats that schools will be giving them large sums of money , or that they are the only students attending a “very competitive high school” , or that great ECs justify a lower GPA . I see many people who are unwilling to drop to a “lower tier” so that they would be competitive for merit, but then complain when they’re offered less than what they believe their child is entitled to . That’s what I see every year . The crash and burn stories come from people who either are unwilling or don’t believe that they should have to compromise .

15

In theory your idea makes sense, but in practice I don’t think that colleges have the resources to figure out the financial aid for every single potential applicant with 100% accuracy. As it stands colleges only need to do so for accepted applicants.

16

It is likely that most colleges can calculate basic financial aid (before any effects of merit scholarships or preferential packaging) for most applicants with a computer program, which can flag the more unusual cases for human review.

17

The algorithm plan would wash away all the fantasies of a holistic admissions process, for sure. Sign me up.

18

Let’s go one better, all schools required to admit all students at one price. Done.

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Relief? Yes. Guilt? Not one bit. I had one child who got big merit and one that didn’t. It wasn’t a bitter pill, it was just how it was. The one who got big merit deserved it because she worked for every one of her A’s, kept taking the ACT until it was high enough, filled out the FA forms. She put in the time and had more choices. She found a school that would give HER merit. She found a school where she could use state grant money.

I don’t think the NPCs are a joke. We knew exactly what each kid was going to get at her school because we weren’t getting any need based aid. If you require schools to guarantee the financial aid, they are going to show any federal grants and that will be it. They would have no way in September (when everyone is pushing the “Show me my aid!” buttons) how many of the neediest students will be accepted (need blind) and how thin they will have to slice the aid, so they’d just guarantee NO need based aid. Might they lose your business (application)? Maybe, but if all the schools are in the same spot of not being able to guarantee need based aid, your list is going to be pretty short if you eliminate those that won’t guarantee you aid.

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  1. Most colleges' admission processes are non-holistic, or non-holistic for a large portion of their class.
  2. Algorithmic determination of base financial aid offers can exist with holistic admissions reading.