Tuition Inflation Calculator

Which years of tuition does the total include?

Tuition is compounded from today until each year of study. With 10 years until enrollment and 4 years in school, year 1 is today’s tuition grown for 10 years, year 2 for 11 years, year 3 for 12 and year 4 for 13, and the four are added together. Inflation keeps running during school, which is why the later years cost more than year 1.

How is the projected savings figure calculated?

Current savings grow at the return rate for the years until enrollment. Each annual contribution is treated as paid at the end of a year and grows from then on. The two are added. Nothing is withdrawn or earned during the school years, so the comparison is between savings on enrollment day and the total of all years’ tuition.

What does the monthly savings figure mean?

It is the extra monthly deposit, on top of your existing annual contribution, that would grow to the funding gap by enrollment. It uses the return rate divided by 12 and end-of-month deposits over the years until enrollment. If the gap is zero it shows $0, and if you enter 0 years until enrollment it states that there is no time left to save.

What happens if I enter 0 for a field?

The zero is used. A 0% tuition inflation rate keeps tuition flat, 0% return grows savings by the deposits alone, and 0 current savings means starting from nothing. Only an empty or non-numeric field falls back to its starting value (35,000 tuition, 10 years, 5%, 4 years, 20,000 savings, 3,000 contribution, 6%). Negative numbers are treated as zero, and years in school is at least 1 and rounded to a whole number.

Why does the tool show dollars only?

The results are formatted with a dollar sign regardless of the numbers you enter. The arithmetic is currency-neutral, so you can use another currency, but read the symbol as a placeholder. Amounts are rounded to whole dollars, except the monthly figure, which shows cents.

Does it include room, board or fees?

Only what you type into the tuition box. If you want to project a full cost of attendance, enter the total yearly cost in that field and every cost then grows at the single inflation rate you set. The tool cannot grow different cost categories at different speeds.

Does it account for taxes, fees or scholarships?

No. Returns are the rate you enter, with nothing deducted for account fees, taxes or the timing of market ups and downs, and grants, scholarships or employer help are not subtracted from the tuition. Treat the gap as a planning number built on your assumptions, not a forecast of actual prices.

Why can a small change in the inflation rate matter so much?

The rate compounds for 10 or more years before the first year of study. In the tool’s starting scenario, switching tuition inflation to 0% with the same savings leaves year-1 tuition at 35,000 instead of 57,011. Test two or three rates side by side rather than relying on a single guess.