Those with internet access can now figure out the net cost of attending community college in Kentucky within five minutes.

With little input, a new, simple calculator released by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System estimates expenses and financial assistance. These include the cost a person would pay for a specific number of academic units, the benefits a person would be eligible for, the financial aid their income would qualify them for, and the amount they can expect to pay for indirect costs such as books, housing and food.

KCTCS contracted with Meadow, a company that serves nearly 100 higher education institutions nationwide with customized variations of its Meadow Price calculator, according to a KCTCS release. The calculator states that its estimations are not a final determination or offer, and they are subject to change.

The contract, which started July 1 and costs $39,999, runs for one year, according to Sue Patrick, a public relations consultant for KCTCS.

“Financial transparency is crucial, and our new net price calculator is a significant step forward in helping our students understand their potential costs so they can plan accordingly,” KCTCS President Ryan Quarles said in the release.

The company’s calculators have estimated financial aid with 97% accuracy, a conclusion based on comparisons between Meadow calculations and financial aid offer letters, said Amy Jenkins, the chief operating officer of Meadow.

She said that schools provide the cost of tuition; merit aid methodology; need-based aid methodology; the amount expected from state grants; and estimations for the “indirect costs” of books and supplies, transportation, personal expenses, housing and food. Veterans Affairs provides its federally standardized methodology for calculating military benefits.

In addition to its annual tuition updates, Meadow adjusts calculators when schools inform them of changes that can affect estimations as well as when the federal government makes changes that can affect calculations, according to Jenkins.

Jenkins said the calculators have a completion rate of 76%, and 80% of those who complete it do so in under four minutes.

Though there’s no guarantee the contract will continue, it does seem likely. Jenkins said that the company hasn’t lost a customer. Moreover, the Higher Education Act requires postsecondary institutions that participate in Title IV federal student aid to post a net price calculator online, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

“Our goal is to provide personalized financial aid estimates to potential students while also keeping KCTCS in compliance with federal regulatory requirements without the need to maintain multiple calculators on our websites,” KCTCS’s Patrick said.

Prior to the launch with Meadow, KCTCS colleges made two net expense-related calculators available to the public. One was a net price calculator that used a standard template from the U.S. Department of Education; the other was an annually updated financial aid calculator developed by KCTCS to provide more personalized information.

“For this upcoming year, KCTCS evaluated the development effort and cost required to update the tools to account for the new FAFSA requirements,” Patrick said. “It was determined that the best and most cost-effective path forward would be to use a single third-party calculator that accomplishes the goals of both preexisting tools, while affording some additional enhancements beyond what the prior tools could provide.”

Jenkins noted that the new calculator comes at a time when the completion rates of financial aid applications have fallen nationwide.

For months, news outlets nationwide have reported extensively on what many refer to as the “botched rollout” of the U.S. Department of Education’s updated financial aid application, which was released late last year. Issues with the application created long delays for financial aid award letters; earlier this month, the nonprofit National College Attainment Network found that completion rates of the application dropped around 11% compared to last year.

“While the calculator doesn’t directly address the issue, it will let students get more information without completing FAFSA,” she said. “If a student sees they’re actually eligible for a certain amount of aid, it may encourage them to do so.”

Jenkins added that some schools used the calculator to navigate the delays.

“Some schools also used Meadow’s (calculator) to send out offer letters, before they got data (from the U.S. Department of Education),” she said. “Students at those schools did not have to wait to receive their offers and were able to make decisions sooner about whether to enroll.”

The calculator is accessible at https://app.meadowfi.com/kctcs-westkentucky.

Originally appeared at the BG Daily News

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