Awareness and financial calculators, not equations, help transparency

I enjoyed reading Antonio Segalini’s thoughtful piece on affording Duke. One of the biggest obstacles we face in financial aid is making our policies transparent enough that students will consider applying to Duke. The government also seems to feel that way; recent legislation calls for all schools to have a “Net Price Calculator” prominently displayed on their websites. The calculator is intended to help each family understand how much an education would cost them at any one institution so that they can base their decision to apply (or not) on more than averages and generalizations. We are in the process of putting our calculator in place and should have it available this Spring.

We are not able to go one step further, as Segalini suggests, and publish the formulas. Duke uses Institutional Methodology to calculate the parent contribution for Duke families. This is a need-analysis system developed by financial aid practitioners and economists for the College Board. The formula and the tables associated with it are the intellectual property of the College Board, and all users are prohibited from making those tables public. But we do not need to publish those formulas to end much of the worrying over whether one can afford a Duke education.

I believe it is more important for families to understand how the financial aid process works than it is for them to have access to abstruse need-analysis tables. Families feel helpless because they receive an important letter with information they don’t understand. They do not know where the numbers come from, what they mean, or how they are used. I am a firm believer that if you understand a system, any system, and how it works, you are in a much better position to ask questions and get more meaningful results. Without that understanding, you have to wait anxiously for that random number on an award letter and then make less-than-informed decisions about how to finance the year.

I am hopeful that the new financial aid advisory committee, as well as the socioeconomic diversity study being conducted by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Education, will help to bring financial aid into the public conversation at Duke and encourage students and their parents to make the most of a system that is in place to benefit them. I am also hopeful that a revised financial aid website and more public conversations about aid will help educate our families and students. Our primary purpose in financial aid is to allow all of our students to participate in “the Duke experience,” not a modified version of it, and to allow all prospective students a chance at that experience. The more our population understands financial aid, the more they can make of it. Until financial aid can translate financial aid policy into the vernacular, and until families view learning that language as vital, families will continue to exclude themselves unintentionally from opportunities. A financial aid calculator will help; more accessible information will help. An awareness that maximizing your aid depends on your understanding of the system—that’s essential. But revealing the equations behind the financial aid calculation?

Not so helpful.

Alison Rabil

Assistant Vice Provost & Director of Financial Aid