Making college costs more transparent

The Obama administration is unveiling another initiative in its ongoing attempts to help students understand the true cost of college.

More from The Huffington Post:

On Tuesday, the Obama administration will reveal its new "shopping sheet," a guide of university costs and graduation rates designed to make college information more transparent for students and their families. But compliance is voluntary, raising the question of whether the most expensive and least productive universities will participate....

The tool, created by the U.S. Education Department and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is designed to help aspiring college students compare financial aid offerings and college costs between different schools. The shopping sheet would include, for each student, total costs of enrollment broken down into tuition, housing, books and transportation; grants and scholarships broken down by type; the school's overall graduation, loan default, and median borrowing rates, in addition to loan options.