As defined in The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, the net price calculator's purpose is:

Lynn O'Shaughnessy recommends that families shopping for colleges go to a college's website and use the net price calculator to get a personalized estimate of cost.

A university or college's net price calculator gives families a better sense of how much they would actually pay to attend a particular institution.

Net price calculators allow prospective students to enter their financial information to find out what students with similar financial needs paid to attend the institution in the previous year.

The Department of Education will post the videos to College Navigator, and other websites, to help get the word out about net price calculators.

On October 29, 2011, all colleges and universities were required by law to provide a "net price calculator" on their websites.

For an example of a net price calculator, go to:

As defined in HEOA, the net price calculator's purpose is ".

Few people know what "net price" means and even fewer know to look for a college's net price calculator on its website.

According to their own net price calculator the full price of tuition is about $130,000 over the course of 4 years at an inflation rate of 4%.