West Texas A&M University is one of a handful of institutions participating in a new initiative from the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice called “The Real Price of College: Improving Estimates of Demonstrated Financial Need.” With widespread confusion over college prices, this initiative was born out of a mission to better reveal information.

Supported with an 18-month grant of $650,000 from Lumina Foundation, the project will help six Texas colleges and universities develop better ways to determine students’ financial need, provide more accurate estimates of cost of attendance, and improve communications related to financial need and price for students, their families, and institutional stakeholders.

“Our work demonstrates that when students don’t know what college really costs, they have trouble making ends meet, even falling short on money for food and housing,” Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab, founding director of the Hope Center, said. “Community colleges and public universities are also dealing with their own budget crunches; we hope this project will help them identify cost-effective ways to help students.”

This project is especially important as federal policymakers consider better ways to assess and report on student need. Working within existing federal frameworks, the Hope Center team will implement and test ideas first outlined in work from Dr. Goldrick-Rab, including her book Paying the Price and a report issued by The Century Foundation.

Additionally, leading financial aid researchers Dr. Robert Kelchen of Seton Hall University, Dr. Douglas Webber of Temple University and Derek Price of DVP-Praxis will lend their collective expertise to this effort. The Hope Center’s project team includes managing director and director of research Dr. Christine Baker-Smith, research associate Dr. Tiffani Williams, and Senior Practitioner-Researcher Edward Conroy (a former financial aid practitioner).

Participants include:

Amarillo College
West Texas A&M University
El Paso Community College
University of Texas-El Paso
Dallas County Community College District
San Jacinto College

“We can’t effectively address affordability if we can’t accurately and reliably understand costs and need,” Jesse O’Connell, strategy director for federal policy at Lumina, said. “This initiative presents a timely opportunity to work with institutions and support students in an effort to bridge that gap, while also informing policy at a critical moment for higher education.”

-West Texas A&M University