FPA Offers College Cost-Comparison Tool

The service by StudentAid.com compares out-of-pocket costs and aid eligibility years before applying to colleges. The site offers a College Cost & Planning Report customized for the FPA and available to its members’ clients at a discount, the FPA said.

“FPA’s collaboration with StudentAid.com provides our members a way to enhance their service portfolio using a unique tool that helps them map out a family’s college-savings plan with greater accuracy during these difficult economic times of rising college costs and shrinking market values,” said Marv Tuttle, FPA executive director and chief executive officer.

FPA said each report does the following:

• assesses an individual student’s eligibility for in excess of $100 billion of student aid;
• evaluates their out-of-pocket costs at more than 6,500 colleges;
• provides detailed comparative data about college choices.
  

Clients of FPA members can use StudentAid.com for $44 and receive a six-college comparison, or an adviser-assisted telephone service for $89 for a 10-college comparison. FPA provides members with a co-branded Web site for clients to access the service at fpa.studentaid.com.

Gift certificates are also available for the service. 

StudentAid.com’s college planning service is available at the discounted price to any student or family interested in evaluating colleges before they apply. The site also offers a free peer-to-peer college suggestion service, where a student can type in a college and then see other colleges most commonly considered by other students interested in that college.