Colleges and universities will be required by law to post net price calculators allowing students to estimate the cost of matriculation on their websites by October 2011.

But striking a balance between simplicity and accuracy in online net cost calculators poses a challenge for universities like Georgetown, where methods for determining allocation of aid are highly personalized.

While students must wait to receive their financial aid packages until just a few weeks before the enrollment deadline, the new law will help them gauge the affordability of each school farther in advance before hearing back officially about their aid totals.

Georgetown does not yet have a calculator posted on its website but has plans to make one available next fall, according to university spokeswoman Julie Bataille.

While its standard tuition and fees combined may seem daunting, the university hopes a net cost calculator will help.

“We want admitted and current students to understand that financial assistance is available to meet their full demonstrated financial need so that cost is not a barrier to attending Georgetown,” Bataille said in an email.

Multiple factors go into deciding a student’s financial aid sum; creating a one-size-fits-all calculator that consistently returns accurate results for a wide range of financial situations poses difficulties.

Many universities have also expressed concern that the tool may not be user-friendly. In order for families to take advantage of such net cost calculators, they must be simple, straightforward, quick and not bogged down in long lists of obscure questions.

At Georgetown, when determining aid, a financial aid officer personally reviews each student’s financial situation and allocates aid based on information provided in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the College Scholarship Services Profile/Financial Aid PROFILE as well as student and parent tax returns to create a package that meets 100 percent of a family’s demonstrated need.

The hope is that through these net cost calculators, families will receive a realistic picture of what attending both private and public institutions will really cost them.

“I had so many friends who wouldn’t even apply to schools that they could have gotten into [if they were] really expensive,” Erin Auel (COL ’14) said.

However, the results provided by the calculator are only estimates. With different schools using different formulas to generate estimates, there is no guarantee that comparing costs at various institutions will be accurate.

The state of Texas, however, already has a calculator in place to make the aid comparisons many skeptics call unreliable. At www.collegeforalltexans.com, families can compare what they would pay at any public university and a few private colleges in the state.