College Search

New Partnerships Add Visibility for College Costs

• By Michael Hart
• 06/08/15

An online tool that aggregates information about college costs is now available at ACT Profile and Noodle.

College Abacus, a free tool that allows students and their parents to compare the projected cost of higher education across multiple institutions, is operated by the ECMC Innovation Lab, an incubator for new products designed to empower students to succeed in higher education.

ACT, a nonprofit that administers the ACT Test for college entry, and Noodle, a Web site that provides information to students and parents about college choices, will now offer an entry point to College Abacus' widget, or app, on their sites, making the information on the real cost of an education at 4,500 colleges and universities in the United States more readily available.

Students and parents can go to College Abacus, enter information about their college choices and find comparative information on multiple institutions after the value of scholarships and grants is factored in.

Since 2011, all colleges that accept federal funding have been required to supply net price calculators on their sites to help students and colleges find the bottom-line cost of an education at the institution. Since 2013, College Abacus has offered the aggregated information that previously was only available from each college.

"In this era of rising tuition costs and growing student loan debt, families deserve access to the best possible tools and information for understanding their options," said Abigail Seldin, co-founder of College Abacus and ECMC Group vice president. "These new partnerships will broaden the reach of College Abacus, giving us a wider platform for helping more families identify colleges within their budgets."