This month Yale College introduced the Instant Net Price Estimator, a new tool designed to help prospective undergraduate students and their families get a clearer picture - in just seconds - of their expected cost to attend Yale.
The interactive online estimator invites prospective students to scroll across a dynamic graphic to view a range of estimates for the family's net price to attend Yale, based on their family's annual income and the number of the family's children enrolled in college. Yale is one of 20 colleges and universities initially offering the tool.
The tool's data are drawn from the anonymized financial aid awards of current undergraduate students and reflect Yale's longstanding commitment to affordability.
"I am excited that Yale is among the first to offer the Instant Net Price Estimator," said Jeremiah Quinlan, dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid. "Misperceptions about cost remain one of the biggest barriers for high-achieving students and their families when considering their college options. This new tool makes an immediate impression and can change those perceptions quicker than ever."
The average need-based scholarship for Yale College students receiving aid is almost $73,000, a figure that exceeds the cost of tuition by nearly $6,000. Yale does not expect parents earning less than $75,000 annually to make any contribution toward the cost of their child's education, and Yale meets 100% of every family's financial need with an aid package that does not require loans.
Kari DiFonzo, director of undergraduate financial aid, said online tools like the Instant Net Price Estimator make her office's mission of making a Yale College education affordable more visible and accessible.
"I am proud that Yale commits all its undergraduate financial aid to providing need-based grants and that our policies make Yale one of the most affordable colleges in America for most families," she said. "This tool helps drive home the message that if you are admitted to Yale, you will be able to afford it."
The new Instant Net Price Estimator was created by Phil Levine, a professor of economics at Wellesley College, and is one of three digital tools Yale makes available to families seeking to estimate the cost of attending Yale College. Each provides a personalized estimate with different degrees of precision. The new tool requires the least time and information from prospective students and provides the widest range of possible estimates.
Among the other schools using the new estimator are Amherst, Cornell, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, Washington & Lee, and Wellesley.
Since 2018, Yale has offered another easy-to-use online tool: the MyinTuition Quick Cost Estimator, also created by Levine. That tool provides a personalized net cost estimate in response to answers to six short questions about a family's finances. MyinTuition takes less than three minutes to complete and does not store any personalized data.
Over the past seven years, Yale's MyinTuition Quick Cost Estimator has generated hundreds of thousands of cost estimates and regularly draws hundreds of users each day. Mark Dunn, the admissions office's director of outreach and recruitment, described the tool as a "game-changer" in communicating with families about costs.
"Applying for admissions and financial aid involves a huge amount of uncertainty, and, understandably, that uncertainty generates anxiety," said Dunn. "MyinTuition has helped us reduce that uncertainty around the question of cost. Over the past seven years our messaging campaigns that invite families to estimate their cost in three minutes have generated more engagement than any others."
Dunn said the office features the MyinTuition Quick Cost Estimator on its website, in email campaigns, through a targeted postcard campaign, on posters mailed to thousands of high schools across the country, and in a series of short videos.
Dunn and Quinlan credited the availability of MyinTuition as one important factor that has helped drive the increase in students from lower-income households who enroll at Yale. Since 2013, the number of Yale undergraduates who received a federal Pell Grant for lower-income students has more than doubled.
In addition to the two quick estimators, Yale offers a Net Price Calculator, which provides a more exact estimate for a student's cost to attend Yale, using the same types of data families submit when completing an official financial aid application, such as tax returns and W2 forms.
When determining a family's financial need, Yale considers income, assets, family size, and expenses, including other children attending college. Prospective students applying for undergraduate admission can submit financial documents to the office of undergraduate financial aid and receive an official financial aid offer at the same time they receive an admissions decision.
Last year, more than 55% of Yale students received a need-based Yale scholarship, and nearly two-thirds received financial support from Yale or an outside organization; 88% of Yale College graduates completed their undergraduate degree with no loan debt.
Since 1966, Yale has admitted students without regard to financial need and has not included loans in financial aid offers since 2008. Yale's Financial Aid Working Group made more than a half-dozen enhancements to undergraduate financial aid policies since then.
"Yale's financial aid program is a cornerstone of delivering its mission," said Quinlan. "Showing a family that a Yale education really is affordable can change the course of a young person's life."
