More than 400 schools have already signed up for the College Cost Transparency Initiative (CCT), committing to effectively and transparently communicating student aid offers to students and their families.
Last week was the official launch of the CCT, a project jointly led by ACE and nine other higher education associations. It's encouraging that so many higher education institutions, serving more than 4 million students, have adopted the voluntary set of principles and standards crafted by the CCT. These principles aim to ensure that costs are understandable for students and families and provide the most accurate estimate of a student's expenses.
This is a remarkable achievement, with more colleges and universities joining every day, and especially significant considering the growing scrutiny that the topic of financial aid offers has faced in recent years.
An institution’s president, provost, or designee can submit a commitment on the CCT website. If you find it helpful, you can also upload a sample aid offer through the online form for confidential feedback.
The CCT is managed by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, thanks to a generous grant from the Strada Education Foundation. ACE President Ted Mitchell is taking over as the chair of the initiative from Peter McPherson, who led the CCT through the development phase. McPherson, president emeritus of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, played a pivotal role in bringing the initiative to its public launch and ACE and the other associations are grateful for his work.