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Want to Know What You’ll Pay for College? There’s a Fast New Calculator for That.
October 22, 2025
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High school seniors applying to college may cross some schools off their list when they see the nearly six-figure “sticker” prices, not realizing that the actual cost may be far lower.
Now, to persuade promising but wary students to give them a closer look, nearly two dozen private colleges are offering a new online tool that factors in aid, including need-based grants and scholarships.
The cost calculator, created by the nonprofit MyIntuition, requires just two pieces of information from users: their family’s income and the number of siblings they have in college. Users click a button on a chart and can instantly see a range that they would probably pay at various incomes.
“A quick estimate might lead them to do more research,” said Ronné Turner, vice provost for undergraduate enrollment and student financial aid at Washington University in St. Louis, which has been testing the tool for the past year.
The tool arrives as many Americans worry that college has gotten too expensive. In a new survey by the Pew Research Center, about eight in 10 adults said colleges and universities were doing a “fair or poor” job of keeping tuition affordable.
How is this tool different from other cost calculators?
Colleges are required to publish their full cost of attendance — commonly known as the sticker price — and to offer calculators showing the estimated net price after financial aid. But some calculators request a lot of financial detail and can take some time to complete. That’s often daunting for students from low- or middle-income families, who may consider the sticker price out of reach and move on to other options, said Phillip Levine, the founder of MyIntuition and an economics professor at Wellesley College, who has studied college pricing.
“The main goal is to get them off the sticker price,” Mr. Levine said. “The sticker price is probably not what you’ll pay.”
Among private colleges, the average tuition discount is around 56 percent for first-time, full-time students, according to a survey by the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
The new calculator is a simplified version of MyIntuition’s original one, which requires six pieces of information, like the market value of the family’s home, the balances in parents’ checking and savings accounts, and the value of retirement accounts and other investments. It takes a few minutes to use. But while it’s relatively fast, it still isn’t quick enough for browsing students who may engage with a tool for mere seconds, Mr. Levine said, so he developed the new “instant” tool. The original calculator remains available on the websites of its client schools.
The new estimating tool is based on anonymous financial aid data provided by the colleges, he said, so it reflects what most students at the school actually pay at various levels of family income. The estimates reflect assets — like a home or savings accounts — that are “typical” for a given income. The calculator says 90 percent of students will pay within the estimated range at each income level.
Yale, for instance, has a sticker price of attendance of $94,425 for the 2025-26 academic year. If bright students think they can’t afford that and decide not to apply, “that’s a missed opportunity in our mind,” said Jeremiah Quinlan, dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid.
The instant tool on Yale’s website shows that a student with one sibling in college and an annual family income of $80,000 would pay $6,600 as a “best” estimate, with a range from as little as $3,700 to as much as $11,700. “We’re hoping people see this and say, ‘Oh, maybe this is realistic for me,’” Mr. Quinlan said.
To get a more specific estimate, students can use a net price calculator offered by the school that requires much more detailed financial information and takes longer to complete.
At Williams College, with a cost of more than $90,000, MyIntuition’s new estimator shows that a student with no siblings in college and a family income of $60,000 would probably pay just $1,000, with a high estimate of $5,000.
Even families with higher incomes may get a lower price, the instant calculator shows. At Williams, for instance, a student with no siblings in college and a family income of $250,000 would pay between $31,200 and $66,500, the new calculator shows, with a best estimate of $48,800.
Does the new calculator reflect merit aid?
The new instant calculator doesn’t reflect merit aid, which is not based on financial need.
Some schools offer “merit” scholarships for academic prowess, but at others it’s often used more like a discount to help attract students whose families could probably afford to attend yet still balk at the price.
The colleges using the new instant tool this fall are selective and don’t give out much merit aid, Mr. Levine said. Merit aid could be included, however, if other schools adopt the tool and choose to do so, he said.
How useful are aid estimators?
Jaclyn Piñero, chief executive of uAspire, a nonprofit group that promotes college affordability, said that quick calculators were fine for getting a ballpark number, but that students needed to see hard figures — including any merit aid — to make final decisions about what college to attend.
“It’s just an estimate,” she said. “There’s no silver bullet.”
Schools base a student’s financial need on the FAFSA, the federal financial aid form, and in some cases the CSS Profile, a more detailed form from the College Board used mostly by private institutions. Then they notify students of their aid with an “award” letter.
Jeffrey Selingo, author of “Dream School: Finding the College That’s Right for You,” said some of the wide ranges offered by MyIntuition’s new tool could still leave students with questions. They won’t get firm answers until they get an official aid offer from the school — usually with their acceptance letter. Ideally, he said, colleges would be able to give students a firm number when they applied, instead of making them wait until they are accepted to know what their actual cost will be.
Why don’t colleges just lower their sticker prices?
Some colleges that offer a lot of merit aid to applicants are doing just that, aiming to be more transparent about the actual cost of attending in hopes of attracting more students.
At highly selective colleges, roughly half the students do pay the sticker price, so it generates revenue for the school, Mr. Levine said. Colleges may use high list prices as a marketing tool to signal quality, he added, then provide a discount in the form of merit aid to appeal to students.
How can students compare offers?
Students should track their official financial aid offers on a spreadsheet or even on a simple chart, Ms. Piñero said, and compare the net price they’ll pay after financial aid and before taking out any loans.
There’s no standard form required for financial aid offers, and some award letters may include confusing terms. Hundreds of colleges have committed to offering formats that clearly outline costs, but it’s wise to make direct comparisons. As offers come in, students can try a worksheet like one available online from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.