On this page you can find a wide-range of resources including general information, help files, and frequently asked questions related to both the net price calculator requirement and the U.S. Department of Education’s Net Price Calculator template. For additional assistance with the net price calculator requirement and/or the Department’s template, please contact:

The Net Price Calculator Help Desk
(877) 299-3593 (toll-free)
npc@inovas.net

Click on the links below for information related to:

• Net Price Calculator Requirement
• U.S. Department of Education Net Price Calculator Template
• Institutions’ Net Price Calculator Web Addresses

Net Price Calculator Requirement

In accordance with the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HEOA), by October 29, 2011, each postsecondary institution that participates in Title IV federal student aid programs must post a net price calculator on its website that uses institutional data to provide estimated net price information to current and prospective students and their families based on a student’s individual circumstances. This calculator should allow students to calculate an estimated net price of attendance at an institution (defined as cost (price) of attendance minus grant and scholarship aid) based on what similar students paid in a previous year. The net price calculator is required for all Title IV institutions that enroll full-time, first-time degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduate students.

Institutions may meet this requirement by using the U.S. Department of Education’s Net Price Calculator template or by developing their own customized calculator that includes, at a minimum, the same elements as the Department’s template.

Minimum Required Elements

Institutions that choose to customize or build their own net price calculator must include, at a minimum, the following input and output elements:

Input elements must include:

• Data elements to approximate the student’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC), such as income, number in family, and dependency status or factors that estimate dependency status*

*An institution may use either Federal Methodology or Institutional Methodology to approximate the student’s EFC.

Output elements must include:

• Estimated total price of attendance;
• Estimated tuition and fees;
• Estimated room and board;
• Estimated books and supplies;
• Estimated other expenses (personal expenses, transportation, etc.);
• Estimated total grant aid;
• Estimated net price;
• Percent of the cohort (full-time, first-time students) that received grant aid; and
• Caveats and disclaimers, as indicated in the HEOA.

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Frequently Asked Questions about the Net Price Calculator Requirement

Q: Can colleges ask users to submit information that is not included in the Department’s template (e.g., GPA, more detailed financial information, etc.)? Further, can they require users to answer those questions?
A: Institutions can require additional info such as GPA (and other fields that will provide prospective students better estimates of net price) beyond the minimum elements that the ED template does. However, while an institution can ask for contact info, such as name, email address, etc., that is not related to the estimate, it cannot require it.

Q: Can colleges limit access to their net price calculators to students who have applied to the college and have received a special log-in/user number?
A: No. It would not be appropriate to limit access, as the HEOA requires this to be available “to help current and prospective students, families, and other consumers estimate a student’s individual net price.” The statutory language provides that prospective students (students who have contacted an eligible institution requesting information concerning admission to that institution) should be able to have access to the calculator to inform decisions of whether or not to apply, and requiring students to apply first subverts this intent.

Q: When and how often do colleges have to update their net price calculators?
A: Institutions should update their calculator on an annual basis when new data become available to do so. Please note that cost of attendance data and grant aid data should align and be from the same year. Institutions using the Department template will need to update their NPC after the Department posts updated versions for each award year. The Department plans to release updated versions in January annually. For example, the Department template for 2011-12 data is planned to be released in January 2013.

Q: Will institutions be considered compliant with the HEOA if they include a link to an outside party’s (e.g., a State, a college system, a 3rd party servicer) NPC on their website? Further, if an institution has multiple OPE ID numbers, may it purchase one NPC and provide a drop-down list for students to select a specific campus?
A: The statutory phrase “on an institution’s website” provides that students and parents must have access to the net price calculator via the institution’s “.edu” URL. An institution may host the NPC on its own website, or it may provide a link to a calculator hosted by another entity, such as the State, as long as that net price calculator includes the data elements required by the federal statute, uses institution-specific data, and clearly indicates that the tool is a net price calculator. Nothing precludes an institution from using a drop-down list of all of its campuses; however, the estimated cost of attendance that the student receives must be based on data specific to the campus location identified by the student (i.e., it may not provide an average cost of attendance for multiple campuses).

Q: Will the Department “approve” an institution’s NPC?
A: The Department does not have an approval process for institutional and State net price calculators. Institutions are responsible for determining that they are in compliance with the requirements of the statute.

Q: Can colleges provide a numerical range for net price instead of a single number?
A: Institutions can output a range of estimates in their net price calculators but must also provide a single point estimate as the Department template does. For example, the institutions could output the 25th and 7th percentile net prices in addition to the median net price. Institutions using the Department template can include a range in the context/caveat section if they so choose.

Q: Are all the inputs in the Department’s template required, or can colleges include any inputs to estimate EFC?
A: The Department’s template asks for a minimal set of input elements to determine EFC, but since institutions can use their own institutional methodology to determine EFC, they can ask for more information in order to be precise. The language in the statute provides “income, number in family, and dependency status or factors that estimate dependency status” as examples of data elements to be used to estimate an EFC, and we believe that this provides flexibility in allowing institutions to ask users to provide whatever information is necessary for the institution to be able to approximate an EFC.

Q: If an institution has no institutional website, would the school be required to construct one for the NPC, or could it just send notification to students and parents about the availability of the NPC template on the Department’s website?
A: Section 132(h) of the HEOA states that an institution shall make a net price calculator “publicly available on the institution’s website.” Because the statute does not make any exceptions for an institution that does not have a website, the institution would need to construct one for its net price calculator. An institution may post the NPC on its own website or link to an external site, such as a State or college system website, as long as that NPC includes all of the elements required by the statute and provides information specific to that institution. An institution may not direct students and parents to the Department’s website because the Department’s net price calculator template is not a functional calculator on its own. It is only a template used to create a student application and requires a website to host it.

Q: Are foreign schools that participate in the Title IV programs required to provide a NPC?
A: Foreign schools do not need to develop a net price calculator. (Updated July 2011)

Q: Is there a minimum number of full-time, first-time students for which a Net Price Calculator is required?
A: An institution that has any full-time, first-time students, no matter how few, must have a NPC. If necessary, the institution should consider using data for multiple years of full-time, first-time students in order to make the calculator more robust. If an institution is a graduate/professional school that does not enroll any full-time, first-time students, then it is not required to have a net price calculator on its website.

Q: Where on my institution’s website should the net price calculator reside?
A: The HEOA states that an institution must make a net price calculator available on its website, but it does not specify where on the website it must be located. It might be helpful for institutions to refer to a recent report of the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC), which includes suggestions on how to make required disclosures more accessible and understandable to consumers. The report is available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2010831rev.

Q: Where will the URL for my institution’s net price calculator appear?
A: Institutions provide the URL for their net price calculators in the Institution Identification screen in the IPEDS data collection system (https://surveys.nces.ed.gov/ipeds). Net price calculator URLs will appear on the U.S. Department of Education’s College Navigator website (http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator) and at the Institutions’ Net Price Calculator Web Addresses link below.

Q: Is the Department planning to provide formal guidance on issues regarding the net price calculator requirement?
A: We have developed this list of Frequently Asked Questions. We will update this list as needed, and we will consider developing formal guidance beyond that if determined necessary.

Q: Can I create and post more than one Net Price Calculator for my institution (e.g. for students other than full-time, first-time or for additional programs other than the largest)?
A: Once your institution has met the HEOA requirement by posting a net price calculator applicable to full-time, first-time degree/certificate seeking students, you may create and post as many additional calculators to the institution’s website as desired. These additional calculators are optional, and as such, are not required in order to be in compliance with the HEOA.

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U.S. Department of Education Net Price Calculator Template

The Department’s template is made up of two components: (1) the institution application and (2) the student application.
In the first component, institutions input the following data:

• Price of attendance
• Median amounts of grant and scholarship aid awarded to full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking students by EFC range

Note: When entering the above data, users may find it helpful to discuss the data to be input with the institutional office(s) that complete the IPEDS Institutional Characteristics and Student Financial Aid surveys.

In the second component, users are asked up to eight questions to establish the following:

• Their dependency status
• Their estimated cost of attendance
• Approximated EFC

The template uses a “look-up” table populated with data from the FAFSA applications database to identify a median EFC. The median EFC is then matched with the median grant and scholarship aid amount entered by the institution for the corresponding EFC range to determine the student's estimated amount of total grant aid. Estimated net price is calculated by subtracting estimated total grant aid from the estimated total price of attendance.

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Frequently Asked Questions about the Department’s Net Price Calculator Template

Q: When will the Department update its Net Price Calculator template?
A: The latest version of the Department’s Net Price Calculator template uses 2010–11 data. The Department anticipates making available updated templates annually in January.

Q: I want to use the template but make it slightly different. What should I do?
A: If you choose to make changes to the calculator, you can find the source code either by clicking on the "Template Source Code" link under the Related Files option above, or by going to http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/netpricecalculator and right-clicking on the screen. From the menu that appears, choose "View Source." The Net Price Calculator application is built using .NET 2.0 and C# programming language. With this information, your institution's IT department should be able to make any necessary changes. Please be aware that if you choose to modify the source code, we will no longer be able to guarantee assistance with any questions or issues regarding system usage.

Q: I would like to enter 2012-13 data into the template, but that is not an option. Why not?
A: Since the Net Price Calculator is based on data from actual full-time, first-time undergraduate students who have attended your institution, you cannot use data for an academic year that has not yet been completed.

Q: I would like to enter 2011-12 data into the template, but that is not an option. Why not?
A: Since the EFC tables that operate in the background for the template are based on FAFSA data, we must wait until the 2011-12 data is publically released before adding the academic year to the template. The Department anticipates making updated templates available annually in January.

Q: What if my largest program is not Title IV-eligible (Program institutions only)?
A: Institutions should use their largest program, regardless of whether it is Title IV eligible or not.

Q: When entering data, should an institution use full-time, first-time undergraduate students enrolled in just the Fall or for the entire academic year?
A: If your institution’s predominant calendar system is “Academic”, then data should be provided for the entire academic year. If your institution’s predominant calendar system is “Program”, then institutions should use price and aid data for the entire length of the largest program (as entered in Step 2, Question 3 of the template).

Q: My institution's web server does not support Microsoft SQL, can I still use the Department's Net Price Calculator template located on the NCES website?
A: Since the Department of Education's Net Price Calculator Template is web-based, and the file containing the Student Calculator is html based, you should be able to upload the student calculator file to any website. No other source codes will be provided for assistance in creating your own Net Price Calculator, but institutions are welcome to revise the available MS SQL code to fit their needs.

Q: Can I rename the Net Price Calculator when posting it to my institution’s website?
A: Since the HEOA states that institutions must “make publicly available on the institution’s website a net price calculator…” the calculator posted to your institution’s website must be called “Net Price Calculator” in order to be in full compliance.

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Institutions’ Net Price Calculator Web Addresses

Click here to download a zip file that includes a list of the net price calculator web addresses that institutions reported in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data system (IPEDS) as of March 19, 2012 in .xls and .csv format. Please contact the institution directly if you have questions about a specific net price calculator.

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Updated 03/19/2012