College Abacus Launches College Search Tool Aimed at Low-Income Students

College Abacus has launched a new tool, Pell Abacus, designed to help streamline the college search for low-income students likely to be eligible for Pell Grants.

Currently a beta release, the new tool integrates data from the College Scorecard initiative and provides projected net costs for each school, as well as "school-specific data on a range of different financial factors, such as average loan payments for Pell students, the percentage of students who receive Pell Grants and the average monthly income percentage spent on federal loan repayments after college," according to a news release.

To simplify the process, the tool asks students if they are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches at their school. If students answer yes, Pell Abacus makes a series of assumptions that can be paired with other personal information to skip additional questions about finances while providing similar results to those available by visiting specific college Web sites.

The tool is also designed to be mobile friendly, as many students from low-income families primarily access the Internet through phones.

"By making this process simple to navigate without tax forms and accessible on mobile phones, we're removing some of the key barriers preventing low-income students from exploring their full range of college options," said Abigail Seldin, co-founder of College Abacus and vice president of Innovation & Product Management at ECMC Group, in a prepared statement. "Our goal with Pell Abacus is to not only streamline the college search process for underserved students, but to empower them by providing meaningful context around the most important financial factors impacting college choice, from personalized net prices to school-specific loan repayment information."

About the Author

Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • glowing digital brain-shaped neural network surrounded by charts, graphs, and data visualizations

    Google Launches Advanced AI Model for Complex Reasoning Tasks

    Google has introduced Gemini 2.5 Deep Think, an advanced artificial intelligence model designed for complex reasoning tasks.

  • teacher writing on whiteboard in office

    It's Never Too Early to Plan for Back-to-School

    School's out for summer, but teacher planning and purchasing for the upcoming year has only just begun.

  • red brick school building with a large yellow "AI" sign above its main entrance

    New National Academy for AI Instruction to Provide Free AI Training for Educators

    In an effort to "transform how artificial intelligence is taught and integrated into classrooms across the United States," the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), in partnership with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, and the United Federation of Teachers, is launching the National Academy for AI Instruction, a $23 million initiative that will provide access to free AI training and curriculum for all AFT members, beginning with K-12 educators.

  • magnifying glass highlighting a human profile silhouette, set over a collage of framed icons including landscapes, charts, and education symbols

    New AI Detector Identifies AI-Generated Multimedia Content

    Amazon Web Services and DeepBrain AI have launched AI Detector, an enterprise-grade solution designed to identify and manage AI-generated content across multiple media types. The collaboration targets organizations in government, finance, media, law, and education sectors that need to validate content authenticity at scale.