Estimate the total cost of college including tuition, fees, room & board, and supplies. Plan for your education expenses with our free calculator.
Future value = P(1 + r/n)^(nt) + PMT × [((1 + r/n)^(nt) − 1) ÷ (r/n)]
The exact terms used depend on the contribution and compounding frequency selected.The estimate uses the starting balance, contribution or withdrawal schedule, time horizon and assumed rate entered. Compounding frequency, contribution timing, inflation, fees, taxes and employer or program rules affect how closely the estimate resembles a real account.
This college cost calculator helps you estimate your college costs with data such as actual college costs (room, board, etc.), other college costs, rate of price increase yearly, number of years left before enrollment, and number of years left to college graduation. You may find that some uses of the College Calculator helps in projecting costs over future years or in making college cost projections for alternative possibilities. Be aware, however, that these are projections only, and not an actual college price guarantee.
How much it costs each individual to go to college will depend on the student, the program that the student is pursuing, the school, the amount of federal financial aid assistance that you receive, where you live, your status as a student, and fluctuations in tuition & expenses.
Make reasonable estimates of the appropriate values for your type of college or institution before entering it into the calculator. Enter those values into the calculator (where appropriate) when comparing different colleges or institutions.
Please, do input in an annual terms. As an example if your have in monthly figures you first put your monthly bill into a figure on which annually has converted from that which is given.
College Cost Calculator-Projecting future college expenses works with these assumptions; how much college will cost if the costs and rate of increase for those costs can be forecasted, or the number of years to college is estimated.
A simple future cost simply adds the present estimated cost plus the projected percent increase each year (if it is for more than one year). The calculator allows multiple expenditure entries, so each expenditure is run individually using its time frame.
The present cost of college might be $40,000 per year and your “rate of increase” could be 4% resulting in college being $41,600 one year from now. Just assume a similar figure for the ensuing years.
For a simple annual cost-growth model, the estimated future cost can be calculated using:
Future Cost = Current Cost × (1 + Annual Increase Rate)Years
Where:
Enter this number, for example as 0.04 for an annual rate of increase, in your mathematical formulation. A sophisticated college-cost calculator may determine costs for tuition, room and meals, as well as a list of additional costs-since those may all go up at different rates.
The problem statement: let us assume annual expenses for a current college is $40,000 the time is 5 years down the line and assume an increase of 4% in prices year over year
This projection helps you arrive at an estimated cost at the start of the future period. This doesn’t imply the student actually pays $48,666; costs vary by college, as do the items that the calculation might have included (in this case, just room and tuition).
This is an estimated cost to attend a college using the variables and inputs you provided to reach your result. if we gave you projected annual and overall college costs; the projected annual cost was estimated for specific year and projected total cost was for all of the total of years you entered into the calculator.
Using a higher cost increase annually can dramatically increase the estimated future cost of purchasing the policy years later as that higher increase compounds for several years. A further year between now and enrolling will cause a greater annual increases assumption to have a greater impact on the resulting cost estimate.
Use the calculator to explore different possible scenarios, instead of thinking that one output figure is what your bill actually will be. You could see the difference between, say, having your annual college costs go up less or more, or changing the initial college costs to understand how sensitive the outcome is to your choices.
There may be more in the total of paying for college. What factors, that may be included in that colleges estimate, that vary from one college and your cost calculator?
| Cost Category | What It May Include |
|---|---|
| Tuition | Charges for instruction and enrollment |
| Fees | Required institutional or program-related fees |
| Housing | On-campus housing or other eligible accommodation costs |
| Food | Meal plans or estimated food expenses |
| Books and supplies | Course materials, books, equipment, and supplies |
| Transportation | Travel and transportation expenses when applicable |
| Personal expenses | Other estimated student living expenses |
Not every college or calculator uses the same categories. Check which expenses are included before comparing two estimates.
Projected Cost of Attendance may not reflect the actual costs paid. A family or student can expect a lower out of pocket cost to be offset by scholarships, grants, employer aid, family savings, VA and education benefit dollars or other financial support.
Borne borrowings can also affect the amount that has to be finance, but borrowed funds create liabilities for repayment and possibly interest expenditures. A college cost projection has then to be differentiated from the banked amount.
A practical application is to perform multiple scenario projections. Comparing an inexpensive public college with more expensive private colleges, for example, or exploring how living at home affects overall expenses compared to paying a roommate share and boarding.
Ensure the assumptions are clear in each scenario. You don’t want to make multiple input changes at once in a case where you end up getting different results and you don’t know where the assumptions differed.
This calculator is designed to predict college costs by asking you a few things, including your current college cost, how many years it will take, and the percentage you are estimating will go up each year. This is going to predict things like housing, books, food, tuition and fee costs, etc, depending on what the calculator uses.
“The so-called inflation” increases every year, so these expenses are cumulatively more than the value, such that a smaller percentage increase will also mean large difference after few years, especially for compound effect.”
This amount is also determined by what you select as the inputs to the tool. The more you include as inputs (such as when not entering any grants, loans or scholarships as an input for your total cost, etc.), the closer the output looks toward the true total cost of education before any aid has been removed.
That’s actually what your Estimated Cost is all about… an estimated sum total of your costs based on the assumptions you keyed in. This projection won’t likely reflect your exact tuition & fees, housing, financial aid, or other actual costs.
If this box is present in the calculator and will actually apply payment to these costs, enter here for better total estimate calculation. If this price is already a package and has housing/food associated with it, this calculation may be unnecessary or duplicate calculation, which will need to be reviewed for accuracy based on your total estimate.
Enter a realistic assumption relevant for the type of estimate you are doing and prefix it by "Assumption:" there is no definite annual increase applicable to all universities and all cost groups over the forthcoming future.
Create a base case with the contribution and return assumption you consider reasonable. Then test a lower return, a later start or a higher contribution to see which change has the largest effect on the projected value.
This college cost calculator presents a more useful breakdown: breaking out total cost not solely in tuition. This allows us to easily isolate which inputs had the biggest impact on the total cost output.
| Expense | Typical Calculation Approach | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition | Annual tuition multiplied or projected across enrollment years | Often one of the largest education expenses |
| Required fees | Annual fees projected over the applicable period | May be charged separately from tuition |
| Housing | Annual housing cost projected over the enrollment period | Can vary significantly by living arrangement |
| Food | Meal-plan or estimated annual food expense | May differ depending on housing and meal arrangements |
| Books and supplies | Estimated annual expense | Can vary by program and course requirements |
| Transportation | Estimated annual travel and transportation expense | Can differ substantially based on location and living arrangements |
Then compare it to Estimated Future Price. Present Price isn't going to be able to help very much in estimating a future expense - but as we say, when you're dealing with this far into the future, maybe you can use an simple estimated cost increase from today.
For example, if the costs are now $35,000 per year and the estimate was a 3% per year increase then the costs after five years would be about $40,575. This figure isn’t an indication that that is the amount a specific college will actually cost, but is just based on the mathematical equation.
Another factored into how total estimate total depends on what year’s fee student attends what year’s price and if they want a five year college process compared to a six-year one that cost only five bucks more or less each time.
There's also a possibility that future years have a higher cost than prior years when it's assumed there's cost inflation that rises over the period of enrollment. For that reason, you should examine the calculator's assumptions about how many years long enrollment lasts, and how the cost of care rises each year.
Running different scenarios can yield more helpful information than simply picking one projection. If supported by the calculator, you can compare various first-time costs, the annual increases that you anticipate, your intended length of stay and how much money you will be spending on housing expenses.
The published or estimated cost of attendance should not automatically be treated as the amount a family must pay. Financial aid can change the net amount owed or financed. Scholarships and grants generally reduce the amount that must be covered by the student or family, while loans provide financing that may have to be repaid with interest.
When evaluating a college, compare the estimated total cost with the expected financial aid package and the remaining amount that would need to be paid or financed.
Publish price vs. cost to the student Published sticker price for college (before your student's scholarship/grant awards or any financial aid they’ll get) and your child’s expected net cost could differ. This means some calculators may look only at total college cost, some focus on total college expenses including your child's available financial aid.
When you’re comparing different schools, verify if the number reflects the overall amount to be paid by the parents, or if the number shown is the estimated net price with aid provided.
A projected college cost can be a helpful tool for budgeting. Knowing how much the projected cost will be, you can then compare that to your savings, anticipated amounts of financial aid, contributions from family, and borrowing capability.
College estimate does not identify how should this expenditure be paid. Financing decisions require independent assumptions about: savings, investment return, student loan interest, student loans, loan terms, repayment schedule, et cetera.