Hundreds of Colleges Agree to Make Financial Aid Offers More Transparent
"There is a lot of variation in the financial aid letters colleges use to inform students of the cost of attending and the grants and loans that are available to them. The inconsistency can make it difficult for families to figure out how much they owe or compare the cost of one college to another," The Washington Post reports.
... "Colleges have often customized their aid offers in a way they felt best served their student population, said Justin Draeger, president and chief executive of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, which is part of the coalition. But experts say that can make it difficult for families to weigh their options."
"'We wanted to maintain some flexibility, but also educate around the idea that standardization was needed for specific elements so that students and families could all be working with the same terminology. And schools got that,' Draeger said."
"He said not every aid offer from participating schools will look exactly the same, but all of the schools will be using the same standard definitions. That means, the term net price will mean the same thing in an offer from Pomona College in California as it does in one from Rutgers University in New Jersey."
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Publication Date: 9/26/2023
