What will college actually cost your family?

1Every college has two prices

The one on the website, and the one your family would actually pay.

A net price calculator is the tool that turns the first number into the second one. Federal law says every college has to post one on its website. You answer questions about your household and income, and the college estimates the grants it would give you. Some take five minutes, some take fifteen, and the answers are different at every college, which is exactly why it is worth doing for every college on your list.

2Watch the price change

The real Brandeis result for our example family, one layer at a time. Press Next.

3The example family

We use the same made-up family everywhere on this page, so you can check your work against ours.

4Try it yourself

These steps follow the Brandeis calculator, which runs on the College Board's system and takes about five minutes. More than 150 colleges use the same one, so the screens will look familiar. The dollar amounts below are our example family's. Use your own.

1. Find the calculator Google "Brandeis net price calculator", or any college's name plus "net price calculator." Two directories list every college's link: collegecost.ed.gov/net-price (U.S. Department of Education) and BigFuture's list (College Board colleges). Brandeis's is at npc.collegeboard.org/app/brandeis.
2. Don't sign in. Click "Get My Estimate." There is a "Sign in with College Board" button in the corner. Skip it. The page itself says "No sign-in required. Your information stays private." Nothing you type is saved to any account.
3. About the student
   Your housing status in college

   On campus

   Whose financial information will you enter?

   Student and parents
4. Parents' household
   Parents' marital status

   Whatever is true for your family

   State of legal residence

   New York

   Siblings

   + Add sibling Age: 12 in our example Attendance: No College

   Add one line for each brother or sister who lives at home. Household size is parents + student + siblings. A sibling already in college changes the number, so mark that if it applies.

5. Parent income: this is where you use your own family's numbers
   Type of federal tax form

   1040 or "Will not file a tax return," whichever is true for your family

   Parents' adjusted gross income (AGI)

   $40,000 in our example your family's total yearly income

   Parents' federal tax payment

   $0 $0 if income is under about $70,000; otherwise the tax line from your 1040

   Work income from one parent

   $40,000 in our example the same total again

   Interest, business income, tax credits, untaxed income

   $0 $0 $0 $0

   Child support

   No

   If you know your family's income only roughly, a round number is fine. Include a parent's wages, self-employment income, and any other money that came in during 2025. Households that do not file taxes choose "Will not file a tax return" and enter income from work and benefits.

6. Parent assets: answer what is true, or zero and No
   Cash, savings, checking

   $0

   Own a home? Investments? Business? Farm? Other real estate?

   No $0 No No No
7. Student finances
   Year of birth · State · Grade

   your birth year New York 12th grade

   Wages, AGI, tax, interest, untaxed income, savings, trusts

   $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0
8. Calculate, then keep it Press Calculate. At the bottom of the results, Print and Download PDF work without signing in. Write your four numbers on the card below so you can compare colleges side by side.

5Read the result

What Brandeis showed our example family on September 26, 2026, for the 2026-27 year. The colors are ours; the numbers are the calculator's.

Above the table the calculator also printed "Calculated Family Contribution: Parent Contribution $0 · Student Contribution $0." That is the college's estimate of what this family can afford from income and savings. It is a real number; the aid formula treats a $40,000 income for three people as having nothing to spare.

What each block means

• Cost of attendance is the sticker price for one year. Colleges have to include living costs and books, not just tuition.
• Grant / gift aid is the money you never pay back. The Pell Grant comes from the federal government and depends only on income and family size; $7,395 is the maximum. The Brandeis grant comes from the college. Brandeis promises full tuition to families with income of $75,000 or less and typical assets, and covers 100% of demonstrated need for every admitted student in year one.
• Net price is cost of attendance minus grants. This is the number. It is what a family and student would need to cover, one way or another, for the year.
• Self-help is how the college suggests covering the net price: a federal student loan (borrowed, repaid after college) and a campus job (earned during the year, roughly 8 to 10 hours a week).
• Remaining cost is what is left after the loan and the job. $41 looks wonderful, and it is genuinely a great result, but it is not the price. The price is $6,541. The loan and the job are how this family would pay it.

6Your four numbers

Write these down from every calculator you run. Four numbers per college is all you need to compare.

7Three reactions, and what to do with each

When we run a calculator with a family, the number at the end usually gets one of three reactions. All three are useful.

Whatever the reaction, the estimate gives your family a real number to talk about instead of a sticker price or an average. That conversation, at the kitchen table in October, is the point.

8Same family, different incomes and different colleges

Two ways to see how the number moves: change the family's income at one college, then change the college.

First, the same family at four incomes

We ran the Brandeis calculator four times and changed only the parent's income (and, above $70,000, the federal tax paid). Still a household of three, no assets, living on campus.

Run September 26, 2026, for 2026-27. Federal tax entered: $0, $4,000, $14,000, $32,000. The suggested loan and campus job stayed at $3,500 + $3,000 at every income.

• The Brandeis grant went up when income went up from $40,000 to $75,000. The Pell Grant shrank, and the college filled the gap. That is what "meets 100% of need" means in practice.
• Even at $200,000, this family's price was less than half the sticker. Middle-income families are the ones most likely to cross a college off by mistake.
• The line is not straight. Each extra dollar of income raised the price by about 10 cents at the low end and about 25 cents at the high end. Need-based aid is designed that way.

Then, the same family at Penn State

Penn State is popular with SLJ students, and its sticker price is $28,000 below Brandeis's. We ran its calculator for the same family: household of three, $40,000, no assets, living on campus. Penn State does not promise to meet full need, and a New York family pays the out-of-state price.

Penn State's calculator (app.meadowfi.com/pennstate), run September 26, 2026, for its 2025-26 aid year: tuition and fees $43,520, housing and food $15,346, books $1,200, transportation $2,142, personal $3,182. Aid: Pell Grant $7,395, Penn State grant $2,000, state grants $0. It asks for a name and email first; we left them blank and clicked Start your estimate.

Then, the same family at CUNY, living at home

Most SLJ students who go to CUNY live at home, so we ran CUNY's calculator (npc.cuny.edu) for Hunter College with "live at home" set to Yes. CUNY's version asks for the Student Aid Index from the FAFSA instead of walking through income first; for a household like this one it is 0 or below, so we entered 0. It then asks the parent's income, household size, and how many are in college.

Then, four colleges at the same income

The calculator is personal. The federal government also publishes what families at each income level actually paid, on average, at every college. Here are four colleges SLJ students know, for 2023-24, the latest year published.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Navigator, average net price for full-time first-year students who received grant aid, 2023-24. Sticker prices are the same source (2023-24 for Brandeis, 2024-25 for the others). Penn State's averages mostly reflect Pennsylvania residents, who pay a much lower sticker price; a New York family should expect its own estimate to come out higher.

What EOP does to a SUNY price

The Educational Opportunity Program, EOP, is the lever most families have never heard of. It is a SUNY program for New York students whose family income is under the state guideline (about $61,000 for a household of four) and whose grades are solid but not automatic admits. It comes with advising, tutoring, a summer start, and its own grant money. Here is a real EOP package a recent SLJ graduate received from SUNY New Paltz for 2024-25, living on campus.

What the table is saying

• A high sticker price can hide a low real price. For a family earning under $48,000, Brandeis (sticker $86,642) cost about the same as Binghamton (sticker $30,657). That is what "meets 100% of need" does.
• SUNY with EOP is the quiet bargain. New Paltz's average net price for these bands is $10,500 to $14,000; the EOP package above brought it to about $8,200, with nothing due up front. Every residential SUNY has EOP.
• A popular out-of-state public can be the most expensive option on the list. Penn State's sticker is $24,000 below Brandeis's, and its real price for lower-income families is $5,000 to $7,000 higher. Public universities outside New York rarely give large grants to out-of-state students.
• CUNY is the floor. For New York City residents, TAP and Pell cover CUNY tuition at most incomes. Every SLJ senior applies to CUNY for exactly this reason.
• Your estimate can beat the average. Our example family's Brandeis estimate ($6,541) was well below the $15,135 average for its income band. Averages mix in families with savings, a home, or two incomes. The calculator is about you.

9What the calculator can't tell you

It is a very good estimate, not a promise. Researchers who study these tools point to the same handful of limits.

• It is an estimate for the first year. The real number arrives in the spring, in the financial aid offer, after the FAFSA and any college forms are in. The result page says so at the top.
• The numbers can be a year behind. Colleges update their calculators on their own schedule. Brandeis's calculator used a sticker price about $3,000 below the university's own 2026-27 bulletin, and its "next steps" text still mentioned the 2024 FAFSA. Treat every number as approximate.
• Merit scholarships are usually left out. Most calculators estimate need-based grants only. Brandeis says its calculator does not include merit awards. Your offer can be better than the estimate.
• Opportunity programs are left out too. HEOP at New York private colleges, EOP at SUNY, and SEEK or College Discovery at CUNY are not in any calculator, and they can be worth thousands of dollars a year on top of what the calculator shows (the real EOP package in section 8 added $6,400). Ask your college advisor whether you qualify.
• Special situations need a phone call. A parent who lost a job this year, large medical bills, a family business, or income from outside the U.S. can all make the estimate wrong. Every college has a financial aid office that will talk to you before you apply.
• Housing choice changes everything. Living at home instead of on campus lowers the sticker price by about $20,000 at most colleges, and often lowers the grant too. Run it both ways if you are deciding.
• Results are only as good as the inputs. Household size and total income are the two answers to get right. If the result looks strange, check those two first.

10What happens next

The estimate becomes a real offer through the financial aid applications, and SLJ families do those together with a college advisor.