What the figures are, where they come from, what we do with your numbers, and what we deliberately leave out. Who makes CollegeClearly is on the About page.
A way to see what a college would really cost you before you commit to it. You name a college; we show its published cost for a year, what your student's grades and test scores may earn there when the college publishes a scholarship chart, what is left after grants and what you plan to pay, and what borrowing the rest would mean each month after graduation. You can then compare several colleges on the same basis and save the result.
Most of it, yes. The calculator, Compare, the saved summary, the college pages, and our educational content are free and don't require an account. The one paid product is Your CollegeClearly Report, a $99 one-time purchase for a personalized four-year picture of up to five colleges on your list.
Parents and students trying to work out what a college would actually cost them, at any point: building a list, comparing options, reading aid offers, or deciding by May 1.
You don't need an acceptance or an aid offer to start. Early on, the published figures and the scholarship chart are enough to see the shape of the commitment. When offers arrive, you replace the estimates with the real numbers and the picture sharpens.
We show both. The college publishes the total for one year, and we show it. What the college does not show is what four years of it would mean if some of it were borrowed, so we also show the monthly payment that borrowing would carry for twenty years after graduation. A total is hard to feel; a monthly payment can be set beside rent or a car.
No. CollegeClearly doesn't tell families which college to choose, which lender to use, or what the right amount to borrow is. Every family's financial situation, priorities, and goals are different, and those decisions belong to the family.
The goal is to help families understand the financial commitment more clearly before they make those decisions, not to make the decisions for them.
Not from the calculator. You don't need an account or any personal information to use the calculator, Compare, or the saved summary.
CollegeClearly does not collect or store personal information entered into the calculator. We do retain anonymous calculation data to help us better understand how families use the tool and improve the experience over time. This includes a random anonymous browser ID that CollegeClearly stores locally in your browser so we can recognize returning browsers without identifying anyone; clearing your browser data, using a different browser, or using private/incognito mode creates a new ID. CollegeClearly does not use this information to identify you.
If you create an optional CollegeClearly account or purchase Your CollegeClearly Report, we save what's needed to operate those features. Our Privacy page has the specifics.
Yes. Every calculation, whether for one school or a comparison, can be turned into a CollegeClearly Summary. You can save it as a PDF, print it, email it to yourself, or share it with family or a counselor.
The calculator starts with a college's estimated annual cost of attendance. After subtracting grants, scholarships, and any family contribution, it estimates how much a student might need to borrow over four years. That borrowing is then translated into an estimated monthly payment using CollegeClearly's planning assumption of a 20-year repayment period and a fixed 6% interest rate. The estimate is intended to help families understand the long-term financial commitment associated with borrowing, rather than predict an exact future loan payment.
The result is an estimate, not a guarantee. Actual payments will depend on the amount borrowed, the types of loans used, the interest rate at disbursement, and the repayment plan chosen. The estimate is designed to help families think about scale and commitment, not to replace official loan disclosures.
Where a school publishes merit scholarship criteria clearly enough to use, that figure can be applied to the grants and scholarships field. How CollegeClearly uses published merit scholarships explains when that happens and what the number means.
Accurate enough to be useful for comparison and planning. Not precise enough to treat as a final number.
The estimate reflects a straightforward scenario: four years at the same cost, standard federal repayment terms. Real borrowing is more complicated. Aid packages can change between years. Scholarships may have renewal conditions. Some families borrow a mix of federal and private loans with different terms. The calculator can't account for all of that, and it doesn't try to.
What it can do is give families a realistic sense of what different choices might mean over time, so conversations about affordability can begin from a more informed place.
No. A college's Net Price Calculator is still one of the best ways to estimate what a family might actually pay after institutional aid. CollegeClearly does something different: it takes whatever cost remains after aid and translates it into a monthly payment estimate.
The two tools are designed to answer different questions. The Net Price Calculator helps families understand what college will cost. CollegeClearly helps families understand what that cost will mean.
Because the goal is clarity, not direction. Every family's situation is different, and the right decision depends on factors CollegeClearly doesn't know and couldn't reliably weigh.
What CollegeClearly can do is make one part of the picture clearer. Advice is a different job, and it belongs with people who know the family's circumstances.
Because access to basic college affordability information shouldn't depend on the ability to pay. The calculator, Compare, the saved summary, the college pages, and our educational content are available without a subscription, without a paywall, and without an account.
CollegeClearly may develop partnerships, services, or other commercial offerings over time, but the core family experience will remain focused on helping families understand college costs clearly and independently.