Free Tools To Know What College Will Actually Cost

​With so much focus on growing student debt, how can students know what actual costs to anticipate and prepare for?

​This webinar will provide a checklist that students can use to avoid costly surprises: fees, living costs, scholarship policies and factors beyond tuition.

​Next, we'll introduce Tuition Tracker, a free tool that you can use to learn the relationship between what colleges say their tuition is and the actual costs of attending a given college. You can compare colleges using your family’s income to see what students like you paid in the past and might expect to pay now. The tool uses historical data to estimate what you might pay to attend in the 2025-26 academic year.

​You can also compare colleges based on graduation rates — how likely a student is to complete their degree on time, which is a big factor in how much college will cost in the long run. There is also data about what the student body looks like and how many people stick with their school.