COST ESTIMATOR

reTHINK PSU Proposal #134

Student Financial Aid, Office of Information Technology,

Student Financial Services

MOTIVATIONS ARE CLEAR

Students express a high degree of uncertainty about their

finances.

This is understandable given the complexity of even

predicting what their students costs will be term by term

(not to mention from one year to the next).

Students with high levels of financial uncertainty are at the

highest risk of not persisting.

PROBLEM IS COMPLEX

Predicting costs is a multivariate problem: per

credit and differential tuition structures, housing

and transportation options, and individual course

selections all must be taken into account.

PERFECTION IS THE ENEMY OF “GOOD ENOUGH”

We propose a layered solution

Use prior term information as well as characteristics known

within banner (eg residency, student level, major/tuition

differential, health insurance) to provide a ROUGH estimate.

Display the assumptions to the student and allow them to

make interactive modifications (eg I will actually be in 16

credits, not 12 this term)

ALLOW COMPLEXITY

Encourage interaction

Allow students to change the assumptions (eg “I’m

moving off campus this term.”)

Provide fields to enter individual course fees or

other modifiers (eg “I know I’ll have some dental

costs too this term.”)

CREATE A LEARNING TOOL

Use the estimator as an opportunity to help

students understand the options they have and how

their decisions impact their total costs.

Link unobtrusively to information about charges

(University Housing rate sheet, Transportation and

Parking rates, etc.)

SOLICIT AND USE STUDENT FEEDBACK

A key component of our proposal is to involve

students in the development of a solution. What

would be intuitive and useful to understand costs?