This week, 22 selective, private colleges launched a new net cost estimator that has a key difference from the standard net price calculators required by federal law. The tool, developed by Phil Levine, an economist and college cost transparency advocate, uses just one data point—household income—to predict how much it will cost for a student to attend that college.

The estimate aligns a prospective student’s family income with the incomes of current students. Based on what those students pay, it then provides a range of possible tuition prices, as well as the tool’s “best estimate” of what the cost will actually be. It also takes into account whether the student has any siblings currently in college.

For example, at Washington University in St. Louis, which has been piloting the resource since late last year, a student whose family makes $130,000 annually and who has no siblings attending college would see that the highest annual cost they’d likely pay would be $33,000, the lowest would be $14,300, and the best estimate would be $23,600. The estimator notes that 90 percent of students with that family income will pay somewhere between $14,300 and $33,000 a year.

Screenshot of https://financialaid.washu.edu/costs/cost-calculators/

The rollout comes at a time when many colleges are working to ensure their real cost of attendance—which is often much lower than the sticker price suggests—is clear to students. Some institutions are launching tuition promise programs, often in an effort to clarify existing policies designed to meet every student’s demonstrated financial need. Others are opting for tuition resets, intended to ensure the advertised price is more consistent with what students actually pay.

But Levine believes that tools like his Instant Net Price Estimator, whose creation and expansion was funded in part by the nonprofit Strada Education Foundation, are the best way to help students understand college costs, because they allow them immediately to see the difference between the listed tuition and how much they will actually pay.

“If you want extensive precision, that requires a tremendous amount of information because the financial aid form you end up filling out to formally apply for aid includes a lot of information … but it’s also very cumbersome,” he said. “At an early stage in the process, a lot of people aren’t willing to go through an elaborate exercise, and they just have it in their head that it’s too expensive and then they don’t bother to apply.”

Ronné Turner, vice provost for undergraduate enrollment and student financial aid at WashU, said the feedback on the tool from high school students and counselors who have used it has been “overwhelmingly positive.”

It hasn’t replaced the university’s two more complex net price calculators (one of which was also created by Levine), she said, but she hopes it will act as a gateway that encourages students to explore college pricing in greater detail. In fact, WashU’s financial aid website lists the other net price calculators just below the Instant Net Cost Estimator, with the message “Now that you have a general sense of what a WashU education might cost, it’s time to drill down to a more specific estimate.”

“The Instant Net Price Estimator—it’s designed as a tool that will encourage families to look deeper at the cost by then doing one of the net price calculators,” Turner said. “It sort of encourages you to look deeper and explore.”

Also, in contrast with traditional cost calculators, Levine’s estimator doesn’t require students to input their family income—instead it presents incomes on a line graph, allowing an immediate glimpse of attendance costs.

Enrollment leaders at some of the other institutions using the Instant Net Price Calculator echoed Turner’s sentiments, noting that historically, families have rarely seemed willing to take the 15 or 20 minutes it takes to fill out regular net price calculation tools. Karen Kristof, assistant vice president and dean of admission at Colorado College, said she’s found that many parents aren’t even aware that net price calculators are specific to a given institution’s own data.

Like Turner, she emphasized that the Instant Net Price Estimator is intended to give families “a little bit of intel to get you started” before diving deeper into the more detailed tools.

Stephanie Dupaul, vice president for enrollment management at the University of Richmond, another institution adopting the tool, said in an email to Inside Higher Ed that she hopes it could lead to larger shifts in how families view the price of a private college education.

“The truth is, schools like the 20 who are implementing the net price estimator are far more affordable than most people realize, because we provide a significant amount of scholarships and grants to students,” she wrote. “The public perception about price at schools like ours is inaccurate, and students who may not realize that are missing out … and we are also missing out on the chance to engage with them!”