Built to close the information gap.

What RealPrice does

RealPrice helps low-income and first-generation college students discover schools that look expensive on the surface but are genuinely affordable for their family's income level. The tool uses federal data to show the average net price, the amount a student actually pays after grants and aid, broken down by income bracket, for colleges in the United States.

The core insight: a school with a $70,000 sticker price might cost a family earning under $30,000 as little as $3,000-$8,000 per year after federal, state, and institutional aid. Most students never apply to these schools because the listed price scares them off before they get that far. RealPrice puts both numbers side by side so the gap is impossible to miss.

Where the data comes from

All pricing and outcome data comes from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, a federal dataset updated annually that colleges are required to report to as a condition of participating in federal financial aid programs. The data used in RealPrice was last updated on June 10, 2026.

Specifically, RealPrice uses two College Scorecard datasets:

• Institution-level data - average net price broken down by five income brackets ($0-$30,000, $30,001-$48,000, $48,001-$75,000, $75,001-$110,000, and over $110,000), alongside admission rates, graduation rates, retention rates, Pell Grant recipient share, and enrollment figures.
• Field-of-study data - median student loan debt and median earnings one year after graduation, broken down by specific major and credential level at each institution. This data only covers students who received federal Title IV grants or loans.

ZIP code data for location-based features comes from SimpleMaps (MIT license).

All data is publicly available and can be independently verified at collegescorecard.ed.gov.

How the recommendation algorithm works

The "Find Matches" feature uses a multi-factor weighted scoring algorithm to identify the best-fit schools for each student's situation. Here is exactly how it works, step by step:

Step 1 - Eligibility filters (applied before any scoring)

Before any school is scored, it must pass a set of baseline eligibility checks. Schools are excluded if they:

• Are flagged by the Department of Education for financial responsibility concerns.
• Are private institutions with no reported admission rate, which are often narrow-purpose specialty programs.
• Have fewer than 100 undergraduate students enrolled.
• Offer fewer than 5 distinct academic programs, which screens out many single-purpose institutions.
• Are primarily certificate-granting rather than degree-granting.

These filters exist specifically to protect the population this tool serves. Low-income and first-generation students are often the students most harmed by institutions with weak outcomes, poor transparency, or aggressive recruiting.

Step 2 - Student preference filters

After eligibility filters, remaining schools are filtered by the student's stated preferences: location (in-state only or open to anywhere), school type (public, private, or no preference), school level (4-year, 2-year, or no preference), acceptance rate range (reach, target, or accessible), intended major (if specified), and maximum yearly cost. All preference filters are optional. Leaving a preference blank means no restriction is applied for that dimension.

Step 3 - Weighted scoring

Every school that passes the filters above receives a total score from 0 to 1, computed from seven factors. Each factor is converted to a percentile rank within the filtered candidate pool before being combined, so scores reflect how a school compares to the realistic alternatives for that specific student, not to all schools nationally.

The seven factors and their weights are:

• Price gap (26%) - the difference between the school's listed sticker price and the student's estimated net price for their income bracket. Higher weight reflects this tool's core thesis: schools that appear unaffordable but are not should surface first.
• Absolute price (26%) - the student's estimated net price in raw dollar terms. This is weighted equally with gap to ensure genuinely low-cost schools remain competitive even when they have a small gap because they were never expensive-looking to begin with.
• Major outcome strength (15%) - median earnings one year after graduation relative to median student debt, for the student's specific major at this institution. When exact major data is not reported by a school, RealPrice may use a related major from the same federal CIP field and labels it as related major data. This is only applied when a major is specified and reliable data exists; otherwise it is treated as neutral.
• Graduation and retention rates (15%) - a quality floor that protects against recommending low-cost schools where students do not actually finish. Both graduation and retention rate must be reported for this factor to apply; a school missing either is treated as neutral rather than penalized.
• Pell student share (15%) - the percentage of students receiving federal Pell Grants. This is used as a proxy for whether a school genuinely serves low-income students in practice, not just on paper.
• Distance (2%) - proximity to the student's ZIP code. This receives minor weight because the primary location choice happens through the in-state/out-of-state preference.
• Campus size fit (1%) - closeness to the student's preferred campus size. This is intentionally very low weight so size preference acts as a soft tiebreaker, not a hard gate.

Step 4 - Results

The top 3 scoring schools are returned. Each result card explains in plain English which specific factors drove that school's ranking, so students and counselors understand why a school appeared rather than having to trust a black box.

Limitations and important caveats

RealPrice is designed to be honest about what it can and cannot tell you. The following limitations are important for counselors and students to understand before acting on results:

• Net prices are averages, not individual estimates. The price shown for each income bracket is the average net price paid by students in that bracket who attended that institution. It is not a personalized financial aid estimate.
• Data lags by 1-2 years. College Scorecard data reflects the most recently completed reporting cycle. A school's aid policies, tuition rates, or financial situation may have changed since the data was collected.
• Major outcome data covers Title IV recipients only. The earnings and debt figures shown for specific majors only cover students who received federal financial aid. They may not represent students who did not take out federal loans.
• Out-of-state public school prices are estimated. For public schools outside the student's home state, RealPrice adjusts the net price by adding the difference between published in-state and out-of-state tuition. This is an approximation.
• The algorithm does not predict admission odds. The acceptance rate range filter narrows results to schools in a general selectivity range, but RealPrice makes no prediction about whether a specific student will be admitted.
• Some schools may be missing data. When a school does not report data for a specific income bracket or outcome metric, that factor is treated as neutral in scoring rather than being penalized. Some values may also be suppressed by the Department of Education for privacy reasons.

Who built this and why

RealPrice was built because low-income and first-generation students often rule out colleges based on sticker prices before they have any idea what the school would actually cost them. Existing tools can require creating accounts, charge for access, or serve a general audience rather than students who most need clear cost information.

RealPrice is free, requires no account, stores no personal identifying data, and is not funded by or affiliated with any college, university, or commercial organization. It was built on publicly available federal data and is intended to remain free permanently.

The tool was built using U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard data, Python, and FastAPI on the backend, with a plain HTML/CSS/JavaScript frontend. The full methodology described on this page reflects the actual algorithm in production. There is no difference between what is described here and how the tool actually works.

RealPrice was created by Aiden Lu, a junior at Cary Academy in North Carolina. If you have questions about the methodology, have found an error in the data, or would like to share feedback after using this tool with students, please reach out directly at aiden_lu@caryacademy.org.

For counselors and educators

RealPrice is designed to complement, not replace, the work of school counselors, college advisors, and college-access professionals. A few things worth knowing if you are considering recommending it to students:

• No account or login required. Students can use the tool immediately without creating an account, providing an email address, or downloading anything.
• No personal data is stored. RealPrice does not retain names, emails, ZIP codes, exact major searches, selected school names, or school search histories. It may store anonymous usage counts, an anonymous browser session ID, broad filter choices such as income bracket, and optional feedback comments so the tool can be improved.
• Results are shareable. Find Matches can generate a shareable URL that captures the student's filter settings. Students can share their results directly with a counselor, parent, or trusted adult for discussion.
• The algorithm is transparent. The full methodology is described on this page. Every result card explains in plain English why that specific school appeared.
• It works best as a starting point. RealPrice is designed to expand a student's consideration set, not make the final decision for them. It works best when followed by a deeper conversation about fit, campus culture, support services, and the student's academic profile.
• The net price calculator link is critical. School result cards link to each institution's official net price calculator. Counselors should encourage students to run their actual family financial details through the official calculator before drawing conclusions from RealPrice's averages.

Feedback from counselors who use this tool with students is genuinely valuable and can be incorporated into future improvements.

Data sources and attribution

• College pricing and outcome data: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard - collegescorecard.ed.gov
• ZIP code geolocation data: SimpleMaps U.S. ZIP Code Database - simplemaps.com/data/us-zips (MIT License)
• School search aliases: generated from school names and, when available, open organization aliases from Wikidata and ROR (CC0).
• School logos: Brandfetch Logo API - brandfetch.com
• Data vintage: College Scorecard Most Recent institution-level and field-of-study files, last updated June 10, 2026. Individual metrics may reflect different reporting years.

RealPrice is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, SimpleMaps, Wikidata, ROR, Brandfetch, or any college or university whose data appears in this tool.