Luke Huh, Contributing Photographer

Yale has launched a new financial aid net price calculator, which the undergraduate admissions office says will help families estimate what attending Yale might actually cost for them.

The Instant Net Price Estimator, added to the University’s website in late September, allows prospective students to view an estimated range of what families like theirs typically pay for Yale. Users can select if they have siblings in college and view what most families with similar financial backgrounds pay for Yale. The estimator provides a range — low, average and high — using data on what 90 percent of similar families pay at Yale, according to Mark Dunn, director of outreach and recruitment for Yale admissions. 

Kari DiFonzo, the director of undergraduate financial aid, said the tool is only a starting point and not a substitute for a full financial aid package.

“The numbers generated by the tools are just estimates and are clearly labeled as such,” DiFonzo wrote in an email. “Getting a ballpark estimate and a narrower range of expected costs is not the same as a completed financial aid offer, but they provide valuable reassurance that Yale’s aid policies will make a Yale College education affordable.”

Jeremiah Quinlan, the dean of undergraduate admissions, wrote in an email that the tool aims to “counter the most significant and persistent misperception” about a Yale education — that it is “unaffordable.”

According to Dunn, Yale is one of about 20 colleges and universities introducing the Instant Net Price Estimator this fall. Each uses data based on the cost of attendance at their particular college. Over 4,000 prospective students clicked on the link in the University’s announcement email last week, Dunn said.

“The Instant Net Price Estimator, like the existing MyinTuition Quick Cost Estimator, uses anonymized data from current Yale students receiving financial aid,” Dunn explained. “With the new tool, users simply select their annual income and the number of siblings in college; the tool displays the average net cost for Yale families with those same circumstances.”

Both Yale’s Instant Net Price Estimator and the existing MyinTuition Quick Cost Estimator are anonymous and do not store user data, Dunn added.

For international students and American families living abroad, Yale notes on the tool’s website that the estimator is not designed for their financial profiles, which differ significantly from U.S. based families.

Wellesley College economist Phillip Levine created the new Instant Net Price Estimator. Levine, who founded the organization MyinTuition for his projects, previously created the “Quick Cost Estimator” which uses a calculator rather than a graph to show potential cost of attendance. Levine wrote to the News that his motivation to create both tools came from personal experience as a parent.

“I initially created the tool because I’m a parent too, and I couldn’t figure out how much college would cost me to send my kids to school,” Levine wrote. “As a Ph.D. economist, I figured if I couldn’t figure it out, then others are likely in a similar situation.”

Levine explained that MyinTuition was designed to ask “a few simple questions” to provide families with a ballpark estimate without having to sift through complicated financial records.

“It’s much easier to use,” he wrote. “Families should be able to answer the few questions asked without looking through their financial records. The result is very accurate in the sense that families in those circumstances will likely pay within the range provided.”

Since launching MyinTuition, Levine stated that feedback from colleges has been overwhelmingly positive. He said the colleges using MyinTuition tools have used them in a range of admission events from “marketing messages” to “info sessions.” 

Quinlan added that since adopting MyinTuition in 2018, Yale has seen strong engagement from families who value the simplicity of these “estimate your Yale cost” tools. 

“Families respond very positively to the invitation to ‘estimate your Yale cost in three minutes,’” he wrote. “I think ‘estimate your Yale cost in seconds’ is even more compelling.”

The undergraduate admission office is located on 38 Hillhouse Ave.