College Board Buys MyinTuition as 700 Colleges Push Simpler Aid Offers

1 articles · Updated · GBH News · May 28

Nearly 70% of students struggle to calculate college's true cost, and only 32% of students and parents say the aid process is straightforward, according to a new Strada survey.
This month, the College Board acquired MyinTuition, a net-price estimator created in 2013, in a bid to expand clearer cost estimates to millions of prospective students.
More than 700 colleges and universities have also signed onto a single simplified financial aid offer through the College Cost Transparency Initiative, aiming to separate grants from loans and make offers easier to compare.
Schools are pairing that push with pricing tactics such as guaranteed tuition and AI bill-estimate tools as enrollment declines, voter skepticism about degree value and years of opaque pricing pressure colleges to rebuild trust.

Can cost transparency fix a broken system if merit aid increasingly flows to the wealthy, not the needy?

As colleges tout affordability to survive, is the true value of a degree being reduced to a starting salary?

With dozens of colleges closing annually, what is the survival blueprint for America's non-elite universities facing demographic collapse?