College Cost Projection Calculator

To assess affordability, families must first know the total cost of a bachelor's degree, beginning with the published, or "sticker," cost. All need-based and merit awards are subtracted from that number, so it's an important one. Year 1 costs require guesswork: the latest available prices are for 2024–2025, so even current seniors must account for two years of increases. But what size increase? How can a family make an educated guess? That's why we built this tool. For about 200 colleges and universities, it projects the total cost of attendance using each school's own median rate of increase since 2018. We did the math!