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COLLEGE
Expand Your Search Online
Our database shows you the best bargains in public colleges. Now, there's another Web-based tool that lets you customize your search for affordable colleges and expand it to cover private schools, too. Peterson's BestCollegeDeals, known primarily among a small cadre of financial consultants, focuses on out-of-pocket costs: the amount a parent is really likely to pay, after each school's average aid package is factored into the mix.
How it works. The site lets you estimate your expected family contribution, or EFC (the amount a family can supposedly afford to pay), and see how much of the difference between that amount and a school's sticker price is likely to be filled by financial aid -- based on average aid packages of grants, loans, scholarships and work-study jobs awarded by each school. The result is an estimate of the cost for your family. The methodology differs from the calculations in our tables, which compute cost using average gift awards (scholarships and grants) but not loans and work-study income.
BestCollegeDeals' Achilles heel is not knowing the probable breakdown between grants and loans. But the program gives you a valuable hint: the average amount of debt carried by graduates. You can pit any three schools head to head on graduate debt as well as other factors, such as out-of-pocket costs and average financial-aid awards.
Even better is the "deals" link affixed to many of the roughly 1,500 schools in the database. Using information on scholarships, grants and tuition breaks, the site can pull up overlooked bargains at each college, including special breaks for academic merit, first-generation college students, minority students, students who perform community service, siblings attending the same college, as well as a catch-all "other" category that includes, for example, scholarships for children of alumni or 9/11 victims.
Eye opener. BestCollegeDeals can show that colleges that seem financially unattainable may actually be as good a buy as a state school -- or better. For the Bartelses, Peterson's estimated out-of-pocket cost at private Boston University is $9,600, not that much higher than the $7,500 estimate for public Rutgers. BU's aid packages meet an average of 90% of the gap between EFC and the school's sticker price, generous enough to offset Rutgers's in-state tuition advantage.
Peterson's cautions that its figures are only estimates based on data that the schools provide and on the accuracy of the EFC figure. If a big chunk of an aid package turns out to be loans, a seeming bargain could turn out to be a mirage. Still, the program can demonstrate that schools that seem financially unattainable may be achievable after all. "It's an incredible resource," Jonathan Bartels says. "This opens up possibilities we never knew we had."
Special offer. Peterson's normally charges $40 for six months of access to BestCollegeDeals. But Kiplinger's readers can use the site for only $20. Use the coupon code "kiplinger" to get the half-price rate. | 
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