Twenty-two colleges and universities adopt a new online tool to help students and families understand their actual cost vs. sticker price
NEWTON, Mass., Oct. 14, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- This fall, a new online tool will help simplify one of the most complicated aspects facing college-seeking students and their families: understanding their actual cost to attend. Launching in October at 22 schools and counting, the Instant Net Price Estimator is a revolutionary online tool that helps students and their families get immediate feedback on how affordable college would be for them. The Instant Net Price Estimator was developed by Phillip B. Levine, founder of the non-profit MyIntuition Corp., professor of economics, and father of two.
"Until now, the traditional ways that schools communicated their costs were extremely time-consuming and too complicated for most people to understand, even for an economist like me," said Levine. "I wanted to create a tool to help schools be clear about the estimated costs to families after factoring in financial aid, and to help students instantly understand that despite the high 'sticker price,' a college might be a lot more affordable than they realize."
The Instant Net Price Estimator is MyinTuition's next-gen edition of the Quick College Cost Estimator, which has been adopted by dozens of colleges since 2016 and provided more than 800,000 estimates last year. Compared to MyinTuition's original tool, which asks users to answer a brief survey of questions before providing a detailed estimate within minutes, the Instant Net Price Estimator generates a ballpark estimate of an individual student's cost within seconds. Just move your finger or slide a mouse along the screen.
Washington University (St. Louis) was the first to pilot the Instant Net Price Estimator last December and has found it to be a highly valuable tool. According to Ronné Turner, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Enrollment and Student Financial Aid at WashU, "High school students and their families found the tool easy to use and extremely helpful in getting an instant idea of the potential cost of WashU. It really helps to simplify the initial conversations about financial aid and cost."
College affordability continues to be a major concern among prospective college students. According to research from Strada Education Foundation, 77 percent of adults believe college is unaffordable. Many overestimate the cost to attend both private and public institutions. "Part of the problem is the public focus on posted sticker prices that colleges charge, yet most students pay less than that amount," said Levine. "Helping them understand exactly how much they will pay after factoring in financial aid enables students to make better college choices. MyinTuition's mission is to provide tools to help accomplish that goal."
The twenty-two schools that are launching the Instant Net Price Estimator in October are: Amherst College, Bates College, Boston College, Brandeis University, Colby College, Colorado College, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Denison College, Emory University, Grinnell College, Occidental College, Trinity College, Tufts University, University of Notre Dame, University of Richmond, Washington and Lee University, Washington Univ. (St. Louis), Wellesley College, Williams College, and Yale University. Strada Education Foundation provided financial support for this expansion.
For more information contact [email protected].
Media Contact
Phil Levine, MyinTuition Corp., 1 617-519-3515, [email protected], myintuition.org
SOURCE MyinTuition Corp.
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