Dive Summary:
- Regulations requiring colleges to display net price (the cost after need-based grants and sometimes other aid) calculators on their websites took effect just over a year ago, but an Institute for College Access and Success report released Wednesday shows uneven implementation.
- While some colleges embraced the calculators and others offered them well before the regulations, others have implemented calculators that show a "price after aid" or "out-of-pocket price," which doesn't match the federal definition of "net price" and could be confusing for prospective students.
- Additionally, a number of schools have made the calculator hard to find and, when asked to prove they were complying with the mandate, 13 of 16 colleges provided links to a page with no calculator while the other three provided broken links.
From the article:
The requirement that colleges display calculators on their websites to estimate the net price, or the cost after need-based grants (and sometimes other aid), went into effect just over a year ago. In a report released Wednesday, the Institute for College Access and Success, an advocacy group, says that colleges are complying with the regulation unevenly. ...