Want to read more?

Our white paper is packed full of information that will help your organization make an informed decision.

Federal Template

Did You Know?

The most challenging task that institutions using the template face is annually gathering, analyzing, normalizing, and testing historical need and merit aid-awarding data based on a student’s EFC.

Creating one net price calculator tool for nearly 7,000 unique postsecondary institutions, from career colleges to research universities, was an understandably challenging task for the Technical Review Panel (TRP), a group of 58 individuals representing federal and state governments, postsecondary institutions from all sectors, professional associations, and others, who met January 27-28, 2009. To meet the law’s minimal data element requirements, the TRP recommended a simple utility for schools and students.

Because of numerous inherent limitations in the federal template calculator’s “one-size-fits-all” design, the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) encourages postsecondary institutions, particularly those that award merit aid or want to use a calculator to support enrollment management, to consider alternative NPCs. The addendum to our white paper (available on request) details both how the federal template calculator estimates EFC and how the template functions. It also provides other resources to help institutions meet the NPC requirement.

Request the white paper and read sections regarding the federal template user experience, how it works, accuracy rates, EFC calculations, and limitations.