<p>All colleges are supposed to put up net price calculators on their websites sometime soon. Consumers can then comparison shop going forward on the net cost to them for attendance versus the sticker price.</p>
<p>My question is this: does the calculator take into consideration merit aid (if offered) generally or will it be basically a need based only calculator, or does it depend on the school? </p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>I just ran through a variety of them and some did and some didn’t. If they are published (simply a tuition discount/merit based on GPA and test scores) it seems more plausible. Some said that “you may be eligible more more” type of statement.</p>
<p>If a school’s merit aid is competitive, then I don’t see how they can include it (that would be horribly misleading!). </p>
<p>I can see merit being included at schools that have assured merit for stats as long as you are asked to provide your stats and meet any scholarship deadlines. </p>
<p>Also, if merit aid is awarded by a dept major, I don’t see how it would be included unless that is assured and major is indicated.</p>
<p>My kids’ undergrad has assured merit, but will not have its “net price calc” up until Oct 29 according to the website. It will be interesting to see if it includes merit at that point.</p>
<p>I have seen a few less competitive schools that have calculators that do both need-based and merit aid. Off the top of my head - University of Tampa and York College of PA do this.</p>
<p><a href=“https://ut.studentaidcalculator.com/survey.aspx[/url]”>University of Tampa - Net Price Calculator;
<p>It seems I have run a ton of these. The ones linked through the college board seem to estimate need only for the most part and output has a similar format. Some colleges that have their own NPC have also asked for info that can estimate merit aid but the result seem to only mirror the assured merit aid listed on their websites (I.E. $5,000 merit scholarship if SAT is over x and GPA is over Y). DS2 did extremely well on SATS and nothing predicted a higher merit package.</p>
<p>Some colleges that have their own NPC have also asked for info that can estimate merit aid but the result seem to only mirror the assured merit aid listed on their websites (I.E. $5,000 merit scholarship if SAT is over x and GPA is over Y)</p>
<p>That makes sense because to include merit that isn’t assured would be dishonest.</p>