Money Matters: Understanding How Colleges and Universities Use Their Websites to Communicate Information About How to Pay College Costs

Abstract

This study uses web sphere analysis to examine the usability and usefulness of information that selected 4-year colleges and universities are providing about the costs of attendance via their net price calculators and cost-related websites. Using compliance with current and proposed federal requirements for net price calculators as a starting point, we draw on prior research to identify and explore indicators of the cost-related information that prospective students need, and the extent to which the 80 sampled institutions are providing it. The analyses show that some colleges and universities are not only failing to comply with federal mandates concerning net price calculators but also ignoring their ethical responsibility, as noted by the National Association of College Admission Counseling, “to provide complete, factual, and readily accessible information that will allow students and their counselors to make informed college comparisons and choices.”