University Business - March 2011 - (Page 44)

Meeting the Pricing Mandate Resources College Board’s Net Price Calculator, www.collegeboard.com/html/npc EDspertise AidCalc Net Price Calculators, www.aidcalc.com/Products.aspx Hardwick Day’s net price calculators, www.hardwickday.com/capabilities/net-price-calculator The National Center for College Costs,’ College Costs Estimator Program, www.collegecosts.com (click on Programs & Products) Noel-Levitz TrueCost Calculator, www.noellevitz.com/Our+Services/Recruitment /TrueCost+Calculator SimpleApply net price calculator, www.simpleapply.com/net-price-calculator Student Aid Services’ ThinkAhead Net Price Calculator, www.studentaidservices.com/default.aspx Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Texas Aid for College Calculator, www.collegeforalltexans.com/apps/CollegeMoney U.S. Department of Education’s Net Price Calculator Template, http://npc.inovas.net/institution Voluntary System of Accountability’s College Affordability Estimator, www.collegeportraits.org/DC/StateU/estimator/agree The Whelan Group’s net price calculator, www.thewhelangroup.com/services/net-cost-calculator.php population in each of the net price calculators we considered. e College Board calculator replicated the results closer than the other vendors’ calculators each time,” recalls McDonnell. She adds that, because Sarah Lawrence uses institutional methodology in its aid policies, it was not a surprise that the College Board calculator was more accurate for their purposes. e accuracy, customization capabilities, and similarities to the packaging technologies Sarah Lawrence already uses in the College Board’s PowerFAIDS ﬁnancial aid tracking system clinched the decision. At press time, Sarah Lawrence expected to roll out its calculator in February. McDonnell sees the net price calculator as a great “truthtelling” mechanism regarding aﬀordability at her institution and other colleges and universities in a way that will promote transparency. at, she says, is the real advantage of the new NPC regulation. Like others, she also has some concerns. Will the families who really ought to use the calculators to determine college affordability actually use them? And will there be a watchdog, in the event that some colleges try to “game the system”? McDonnell suggests the Student Aid Alliance as an appropriate group to assist with monitoring. Tracy Manier, associate vice president and dean of undergraduate admissions at St. Edward’s University (Texas), meanwhile, reports that her institution has, for a number of years, used their own aid calculator that provided sound estimates. However, as ofﬁcials determined what it would take to retroﬁt their homegrown calculator to meet the new federal requirements, they decided it was best to use a third-party vendor. eir plan is to continue using the scholarship component of the St. Edward’s calculator and expand its use to include scholarship calculations for transfers and international students. Doris Constantine, associate vice president for student ﬁnancial services, says it’s important for St. Edward’s to select a net price calculator that provides both merit- and need-based aid information, and they intend to choose a vendor that can accommodate a “launch” date in fall 2011 to coincide with the update of their own scholarship calculator for the next recruiting cycle. While widespread surveys have not been conducted on where institutions are with implementing a net price calculator, the Council for Christian College and Universities’ 2010 ﬁnancial aid survey provides some insight. e NPC was listed in the “hot topic” section of the survey. Of the 69 responding institutions, 58 percent are planning to use a third-party vendor, 34 percent intend to develop their own, and 8 percent were still undecided. In addition, 7 percent had already implemented a NPC prior to fall 2010, 38 percent had or planned to have posted the NPC during the 2010-2011 academic year, and the remaining majority planned to launch in fall 2011 in time to meet the October 2011 deadline. Emily Sinsabaugh, vice president for university relations at St. Bonaventure University (N.Y.), says her institution’s early NPC 44 | March 2011 implementation process, now complete, was a good strategic decision because of the school’s generous scholarship and ﬁnancial aid programs. “We immediately decided that the federal government tool was not going to meet our needs, so we looked at three commercial products and opted for the Noel-Levitz TrueCost Calculator. It more than met our needs for incorporating various merit- and need-based variables, and they enabled us to meet the aggressive timeline we set for ourselves,” she explains, adding that the calculator was launched on December 20. She has already gotten positive feedback from parent users, and adds, “ is tool will enable our staﬀ to work more closely with families on the issue of ﬁnancial aid as ﬁnal college decisions are made.” Mary Piccioli is an enrollment management consultant for Scannell & Kurz, www.scannellkurz.com. Emily Sinsabaugh of St. Bonaventure University (N.Y.), contributed to this article. universitybusiness.com http://www.collegeboard.com/html/npc http://www.aidcalc.com/Products.aspx http://www.hardwickday.com/capabilities/net-price-calculator http://www.collegecosts.com http://www.noellevitz.com/Our+Services/Recruitment/TrueCost+Calculator http://www.simpleapply.com/net-price-calculator http://www.studentaidservices.com/default.aspx http://www.collegeforalltexans.com/apps/CollegeMoney http://npc.inovas.net/institution http://www.collegeportraits.org/DC/StateU/estimator/agree http://www.thewhelangroup.com/services/net-cost-calculator.php http://www.scannellkurz.com http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - March 2011

University Business - March 2011
Contents
Editor’s Note
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Behind the News
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Human Resources
Universities and Investment Fraud
Going the Distance
Meeting the Transparent Pricing Mandate
Community Colleges
What’s New
End Note

University Business - March 2011