Cost Estimator Methodology

Data Sources

The CampusGuide Cost Estimator uses publicly available federal data from two primary sources:

• IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) — Collected annually by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part of the U.S. Department of Education. Every Title IV institution in the United States is required to report detailed cost and financial aid data to IPEDS.
• College Scorecard — Published by the U.S. Department of Education. Provides consumer-facing data including net price by income level, median debt, loan repayment rates, and post-graduation earnings.

Our data is updated annually when new IPEDS and Scorecard datasets are released. The current dataset reflects the 2025–2026 reporting year.

What We Estimate

For each school you select, we calculate:

• Sticker Price — The published cost before financial aid: tuition (in-state or out-of-state based on your selection) + room and board (based on your housing choice) + books and supplies.
• Estimated Net Price — What students in your income range actually paid after grants and scholarships. This is interpolated from IPEDS data (see below).
• Estimated Grants & Aid — The difference between the sticker price and estimated net price.
• Monthly Cost — Net price divided by 10 (a standard academic year).
• 4-Year Total — Net price multiplied by 4.

How Net Price Is Calculated

IPEDS reports the average net price paid by first-time, full-time students who received federal financial aid, broken into five household income brackets:

Rather than placing you into a bracket and showing the bracket average (which creates artificial jumps at bracket boundaries), we use piecewise linear interpolation between bracket midpoints. This produces a smooth, continuous estimate based on your specific income.

For example, if your income is $50,000 (between the $39,000 and $61,500 midpoints), we calculate a weighted average between the $30K–$48K and $48K–$75K bracket values based on where $50,000 falls between those midpoints.

For incomes below $15,000, we use the lowest bracket value. For incomes above $130,000, we use the highest bracket value.

Your Inputs

We ask five questions:

1. Household income — Drives the net price interpolation. This is the single largest factor in financial aid eligibility.
2. Family size — Currently used for context. Future versions will incorporate family size into Pell Grant estimation using the Income Protection Allowance from the federal Student Aid Index formula.
3. Housing plan — Determines which room and board figure is used: on-campus housing, off-campus rental, or $0 (living with family).
4. Residency — Determines whether in-state or out-of-state tuition is used in the sticker price. Note: the IPEDS net price brackets are averages across all students regardless of residency status.
5. School selection — Up to 5 schools to compare side by side.

Accuracy and Limitations

This tool provides estimates, not guarantees. Important limitations:

• Based on averages. Net price data reflects averages for students who received federal aid in a given income bracket. Your actual cost may be higher or lower.
• No merit aid. IPEDS net price data includes merit-based aid in the aggregate, but we cannot estimate your individual merit aid based on GPA or test scores.
• Dependent students. The IPEDS data primarily represents dependent students (those who report parent income on the FAFSA). Independent students may see different results.
• Mixed residency data. For public universities, the net price brackets average together in-state and out-of-state students. If you are out-of-state at a public university, your actual net price may be higher than shown.
• Historical data. IPEDS data reflects what students paid in a prior year. Costs and aid policies change annually.
• Data availability. 3,365 schools have income-based net price data. Schools without this data show average net price or sticker price only.

Research indicates that quick net price estimators using IPEDS data typically fall within $3,000–$5,000 of actual net price for most families. For a more precise estimate, we recommend using each school's official Net Price Calculator, linked from the results page.

Official Net Price Calculators

Since 2011, the Higher Education Act requires every Title IV institution to provide an official Net Price Calculator on its website. These school-specific tools use institutional data and can account for merit aid, specific programs, and other factors that aggregate data cannot.

Our results include a direct link to each school's official calculator when available. We recommend using the official NPC for any school where you are seriously considering enrollment.