How to find the ‘real’ price of college

Students shouldn't take tuition costs at face value, experts say.

Scouring the web for college tuition estimates may no longer give students and their parents an acute case of sticker shock.

Two years after the U.S. Education Department (ED) told colleges and universities that their websites would have to include a net-price calculator by October 2011, a new site called eduLaunchPad.com has come out with a tool that shows students what they’ll have to pay out of pocket to attend college.

Accounting for financial aid eligibility, grade point average, and standardized test scores, for example, can knock thousands off the “sticker price” of tuition posted on a university’s website. Sometimes, that sticker price can be cut in half – and maybe more.…Read More