Placing a net price calculator on your campus Web site

As we all know, the Higher Education Opportunity Act requires all colleges and universities that receive Title IV funds to have a fully-functioning net price calculator (NPC) available on their Web sites by the end of October 2011. To fulfill this requirement, many campuses are now beginning either to develop their own calculators or purchase them from vendors. But this requirement begs a larger question: how will campuses use these net price calculator in their recruitment process?

My own experience as the parent of a college student illustrates why this is an important question (and why the federal government required colleges to post NPCs). When my 21-year-old was moving through the college selection process a few years ago, I remember how he would come home bright-eyed with a new college on his list, eager to learn more about that campus. The first step in our search process—and a big factor in determining if my son would inquire for more information—was to visit the school’s Web site. During our search we would look at majors, co- and extra-curricular activities, admissions requirements, and of course cost. We essentially looked for answers to 10 to 12 most commonly asked questions students have about a campus. When I compare our college search with the students in the Noel-Levitz 2010 E-Expectations report, we probably fell into the group who visited 10 to 14 campuses throughout the search process, so we repeated this procedure a fair number of times.

One of the most frustrating things was that answers to our questions about cost were often elusive at best. This crucial piece of our college search was often hard to find online.

Today, the college Web site is the primary point of initial contact for students researching a prospective school. That means that your campus Web site (and more specifically your admissions Web page) needs to provide quick access to critical information and answer the kinds of questions my son and millions of other prospective students have.

The beauty of an NPC is that these calculators can quickly deliver information about tuition, room and board, and fees in a format that can be easily understood by students and their parents. Therefore, you should definitely place your NPC on the top pages of your admissions section and/or your financial aid section.

Given the importance of answering questions about cost, the NPC should be as accessible if not more accessible on your site as information about visiting campus or accessing an online viewbook. Consider making the NPC a part of your navigation or having other visual cues to catch the attention of students. Below is a screen shot from the Noel-Levitz NPC demo site, using the fictional Noel-Levitz University. Here the NPC is embedded off the main financial aid site (click to enlarge the image).

Another major point of emphasis: Cost information should be near information about the value of your college’s educational experience and the family’s return on investment (ROI). When providing cost information, you want to answer the important follow-up question: Why should students and their families invest in an education from your campus? Simply put, if you highlight the benefits of your campus and the ROI for families, you can make cost less of an issue.

Finally, for an NPC to be most effective, it has to deliver accurate information that is personalized to that student. My colleague Peter Bryant has written about five key elements of price calculators, but I will reiterate that an NPC has to be easy to use and, as much as possible, show students all of the aid for which they are eligible. You do not want to have a calculator that’s so complicated that students and parents won’t complete it, or one that shows a student’s cost will be higher than it really will.

For many families, financial aid and the financial assistance process is a barrier. The Higher Education Opportunity Act was created to make understanding that process easier via NPCs. But it’s clear that NPCs can do more than just convey cost information. When placed strategically, and when they convey information clearly and correctly, an NPC can reduce the cost factor from the college selection process, allowing factors such as fit, majors, location, and ROI to influence students’ decisions as well.

If you have any questions about creating or implementing an NPC for your campus, feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment below. We will also be hosting a free one-hour Webinar about our own NPC on May 19, which will give you some helpful information as you think about either designing your own NPC or purchasing one for your site.