This bill makes improvements to the Net Price Calculator system that colleges are required to have on their websites. The Net Price Calculator is a tool that helps students and families estimate how much college will actually cost them after financial aid is applied.

Right now, these calculators exist but are often hard to find on college websites and don't always show consistent information. This bill fixes that by requiring colleges to make their calculators much more visible and user-friendly. Specifically, colleges must place a clearly labeled link to their calculator in prominent locations on their website (like on financial aid or tuition pages), make sure the link is easy to spot, and ensure the calculator displays important information clearly. The calculator must show your estimated net price (the actual cost after aid) as the biggest number on the results screen, break down all costs including tuition, room and board, and books, show what grants and scholarships you might receive, and explain what year the data is from.

The bill also protects your privacy by requiring calculators to mark any requests for contact information as optional and prohibiting colleges from selling or sharing any personal information you enter. Additionally, the bill directs the federal government to create a universal net price calculator—a single tool where you could enter information once and get cost estimates from multiple colleges at the same time. Before launching this universal calculator, the government must test it with real students, families, and counselors to make sure it actually works well for people trying to understand college costs. Overall, this bill aims to give students and families clearer, more honest information about what college will cost them.

Net Price Calculator Improvement Act

Guthrie, Brett

Net Price Calculator Improvement Act This bill establishes requirements concerning the information that must be provided to prospective students about the cost of attendance at an institution of higher education (IHE). Specifically, the bill establishes the minimum requirements for the net price calculator that an IHE must include on its website. An IHE's net price is the average yearly price actually charged to first-time, full-time undergraduate students receiving student aid at the IHE after deducting such aid. The bill also authorizes the Department of Education to develop a universal net price calculator that enables users to answer one set of questions and receive net prices for several IHEs and compare those prices.