Celebrating MyIntuition: A Great Net Price Estimator Alternative
Why is the completion rate for net price calculators low? Leave aside the fact that too many schools still make then (intentionally or not) hard to find. The standard “net price calculators” are mini-versions of the FAFSA form. That’s why completion rates are low.
Back in February 2014 I selected a marvelous alternative to net price calculators as a Link of the Week… the 6-question MyIntuition form initiated by Wellesley College. Not too long after that it was adopted by University of Virginia and Williams College. Further adoptions then seemed to languish. Until April 2017.
Today the Link of the Week is not a single college or university site. Instead, we are celebrating and suggesting everyone visit the new MyIntuition.org website promoting adoption of this brief approach to cost estimation. Up to 80 percent of people who start it will actually complete it. If you really do care about providing early cost estimate information to potential students, you will adopt this form.
When you visit you’ll see the 15 schools that are now using MyIntuition. From the dates of the press releases from the schools, most have just started using it in the last few weeks.
Variable Content Presentation and Download Speed
Visibility and initial presentation of MyIntuition varies among the schools using it. Here are the 15 adopters and links to the pages that offer the option to potential students and their parents. These mobile and desktop speed ratings are for the page that introduces MyIntuition (not the MyIntuition page itself except where noted).
- Amherst College… 65/100 for mobile and 84/100 for desktop.
- Bowdoin College… 53 for mobile and 69 for desktop.
- Carleton College… 57 for mobile and 77 for desktop.
- Colorado College… 70 for mobile and 84 for desktop.
- Columbia University… 60 for mobile and 82 for desktop.
- Dartmouth University… 62 for mobile and 69 for desktop. (very limited MyIntuition promotion)
- Mount Holyoke College… the MyIntuition page is here but the Financial Aid page only links to the College Board NPC.
- Pomona College… 55 for mobile and 71 for desktop.
- Rice University… 34 for mobile and 41 for desktop.
- University of Virginia… 61 for mobile and 68 for desktop.
- Vassar College… 83 for mobile and 93 for desktop.
- Washington and Lee University… 57 for mobile and 66 for desktop.
- Wellesley College… 60 for mobile and 68 for desktop.
- Wesleyan University… 38 for mobile and 44 for desktop.
- Williams College… 64 for mobile and 78 for desktop.
A short from like this should be quite mobile friendly to complete with just a bit of vertical scrolling. At Pomona College, for instance, it is. But at University of Virginia, visitors will have to scroll sideways to see the pages. That’s a mistake.
On Mobile…
The MyIntuition website page itself scores a 65 for Mobile and a perfect 100 for Mobile Friendliness.
Follow the Link of the Week
The MyIntuition home page calls this approach to estimating college costs “a revolutionary online tool.” That’s not marketing hype. If you want to eliminate “sticker shock” as early as possible, visit MyIntuition Quick College Cost Estimator. You don’t have to be an “elite college” to do this.
Link of the Week Archive
Regular readers will notice that the Link of the Week selection now appear with my blog. To review initial 2016 selections and previous years visit the Link of the Week archive page.