Staying informed about the college admissions and financial aid process
through access to current research is a positive investment for guidance
counselors, parents and students. studentPOLL is a research
collaboration between the College
Board and Arts and Sciences Group, LLC that
focuses on the perceptions and behaviors of college-bound students and their
families. College admissions and enrollment administrators use external sources
of data, such as studentPOLL, along
with institutional data to measure and predict student behaviors.
The current issue of studentPOLL is based on a
survey of high school seniors and their college considerations relative to the
sticker price and full cost of attendance at a specific college or university.
The headline of the most recent poll is: “A
Majority of Students Rule Out Colleges Based on Sticker Price” (vol 9, issue 1). It is a
significant challenge that many students and families rule out a college based
on sticker price without knowing that the cost of attendance will most likely
be far less. (See the infographic featured in Caroline’s Jan 11 blog post.)
According to the studentPOLL findings:
“More than half of the 1,461 students surveyed reported that they had ruled out colleges on the basis of the sticker price alone without considering their likely financial aid awards.”(The infographic from ScholarshipExperts.com states 6 out of 10 students rule out a college based on sticker price.)
I join
many admissions, financial aid and guidance counseling colleagues who believe families
tend to overestimate total college attendance costs. The Joyce Ivy Foundation’s
college partners – along with many other highly selective colleges and
universities – offer need-based financial aid. That means your cost of
attendance will be based on what your family is able to pay. It is extremely
important for families to use the online net price calculator located on the
financial aid website of a specific college or university to see estimated
information about what it will actually cost
that student, and family, to attend. (More on net price calculators and sources
of financial aid information in our Dec 19 post.) Many college financial aid
offices provided access to an institutional online net price calculator before
the Federal mandate to provide an online net price calculator. The studentPOLL
report suggests that while use of net price calculators has increased over
time, students are not using these tools to the degree that was anticipated.
studentPOLL
also has a chart that captures the various sources students report using for
financial aid information:
Source: studentPOLL, volume 9, issue 1
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