What is a net price calculator and why is it needed?

 Fostering informed financial decisions through cost transparency in university education

According to a study conducted by Michael and Robert in 2008, the cost of college is an essential consideration for students and their parents when choosing an institution. The cost of education, in particular, is a deciding factor for students from economically poor backgrounds. Only 60% of students complete a college degree within six years of beginning their studies.

As a result, the federal government requires that all academic institutions that offer federal student aid provide an online net price calculator (NPC) to assist families in making informed college decisions for their children based on their financial circumstances.

Net Price Calculator

The federal government provides a framework for a net price calculator to assist families in determining their education affordability. Families can use that calculator to figure out the difference between the net and sticker prices. The sticker price is the amount that the college advertises on its website, but the net price is the amount that families are expected to pay once financial/scholarship aid is taken into consideration.

In brief, a net price calculator promotes cost transparency and aids families in making the best financial decisions possible.

The federal net price calculator provides a framework for calculating the net cost of attendance, but it has some limitations that admissions departments would wish to avoid. Instead, Virtue Analytics works with colleges to construct a net price calculator that can be easily integrated with the college website.

Why do colleges need a net price calculator?

Prior to the invention of net price calculators, students had no idea how much money they would have to pay out of pocket until they applied for admission, applied for financial assistance, and received an award letter. The expense of education is a major consideration for many students and parents. As a result, the federal government mandated in 2011 that every college and university offering federal student aid have an online net price calculator.

Students and families are more likely to apply and enroll when they have a nice and informed experience with a net price calculator.

The Net Price Calculator also assists students and families in becoming more financially literate and cost-transparent, which aids in better college financial planning.

Auto-fill Free Demo of Virtue’s Intelligent Net Price Calculator

Why Virtue’s net price calculator?

1. Accurate and up-to-date — Virtue provides active support with zero downtime and helps to keep the calculator with up-to-date scholarship calculations.

2. Adaptive survey form: Assessing the financial resources to calculate the estimated family contribution can be lengthy. Using an adaptive questionnaire, Virtue’s net price calculator calculates the family contribution in a fraction of seconds.

3. The Virtue net price calculator shows a low bounce rate and a high completion rate.

4. Virtue‘s NPC collects the student data and can be leveraged as a lead generation tool.

5. The student’s leads are collected and processed on US servers.

6. Universities receive periodic leads via email and are backed by an interactive dashboard where the admissions office can study the student interests and develop a data-backed student engagement program.

7. NPC can work as a vehicle of social change by bringing cost transparency and helping families with budgeting, which ultimately fosters intergenerational mobility and financial security for disadvantaged families.

Your data is safe with Virtue Analytics.

Virtue Analytics promises its clients and users the highest level of privacy protection. The data collected from students is stored in disparate data silos and cannot be replicated or misused by any third party. This is in contrast to free net price calculators available elsewhere, which misuse the student’s data. Virtue stands for its professional ethics, which ensures that its users’ data is completely secure.

Virtue complies with the Privacy Act of 1974 as well as the Federal Trade Commission Act, which establishes a code of fair information practices that govern the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of information about individuals stored in record systems by federal agencies in the United States.