Akeelah and the Bee (2006) follows a young girl from South Los Angeles in her quest to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Akeelah’s victory stoked local interest in spelling bees and inspired members of her family and community to focus on education. At College Abacus, we were curious to explore what an extraordinary student like Akeelah might expect in financial aid when applying to college. As a first-generation minority applicant from a low-income background, financial aid is likely to provide key support for Akeelah’s matriculation, persistence and completion at a four-year college. Using CollegeAbacus.com, we generated Akeelah’s individualized financial aid estimates across different schools. We began by looking at Akeelah’s net prices for a local community college, a state university and a private liberal arts college. Then, we checked her individualized net price to attend top-ranked HBCUs and top STEM schools. We found that Akeelah's financial aid offers and her projected cost of attendance varied widely and the results are somewhat counterintuitive. For example, even though Pomona College is 10x the price of the local community college, financial aid would enable Akeelah to attend Pomona for $4400/year – only $2300 more than she would pay to attend community college. Click on the presentation to learn about Akeelah's estimates at HBCUs and STEM schools. College Abacus CEO and co-founder Abigail Seldin delivered this presentation at the Education Datapalooza on January 15, 2014. Co-hosted by the White House and the U.S. Department of Education, the event highlights innovators who use freely available government data to build products, services, and apps that empower students with information, expand educational opportunity and help colleges innovate in creative and powerful ways. You can watch the video recording of the original presentation here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/42750757/highlight/455600?utm_campaign=ustre-am&utm_source=ustre-am&utm_medium=social

2. Akeelah's college search
Akeelah and the Bee (2006) follows a young
girl from South Los Angeles in her quest to
win the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
At College Abacus, we were curious to
explore what an extraordinary student like
Akeelah might expect in financial aid when
applying to college. As a first‐generation
minority applicant from a low‐income
background, financial aid is likely to provide
key support for Akeelah’s matriculation,
persistence and completion at a four‐year
college.

3. Sticker price does not predict net price

4. Aid varies widely at similar schools
3x+

5. Elite schools can be affordable

6. US Government Open Data Feature
NEW!
FSA DATA
IPEDS DATA