[originaltext]M: We reached directly out to both school administrators to find

M: We reached directly out to both school administrators to find how they are offsetting tuition, and then reaching out to students, who we consider college experts, and asking them about the value for their education and what financial value they are getting for that education.
W: Some of this is objective and some subjective.
M: Exactly. It’s both qualitative and quantitative. We got 160,000 students through our website princetonreview.com. Questions are basically in three aspects, overall academic, cost and financial aid, like what it takes to get into those 150 schools, exactly what they thought the academic experience was in the classroom. Were their professors good teachers? Are they accessible inside and outside the classroom?
W: So what have you found?
M: Not only the administrators for lots of these schools, but students are saying it’s of great academic value as well.
W: What’s the criterion of this Tuition GPA?
M: Tuition GPA is that we are looking for overall financial aid. What does that school do to bring down their sticker price to a manageable number? How much aid are they giving out? What is the average debt for each student once they graduate? Do students think it of financial aid value? What are they actually getting?
W: You suggest that sticker shock is one of the biggest misunderstandings when people are searching for colleges.
M: It is, doubtless. What we’ve found is most people will cross a school off their list because it has a high sticker price, which is totally a wrong thing to do. Schools that charge a lot of money can be very aggressive about giving out large financial aid packages to their students, tike grant money, free money, and scholarship.
W: So always look a little bit deeper into the hole.