It wasn’t that long ago that families had to watch their students apply to college without actually knowing how much it would ultimately cost. Financial aid packages are awarded around the same time a student receives an offer of admission. So the choice of where to apply was a financial roll of the dice. That changed in October 2011 when the government mandated that every college had to include a tool called the “net price calculator” on their websites.
In addition to the net price calculators on college websites, here are two other resources to help families estimate college affordability before a student applies:
Mark Kantrowitz recently penned Consider Financial Fit when Choosing Colleges.
And here’s a past post of mine about how to include affordability when searching for college fits.