University of Georgia (UGA)
Transforming Tuition Transparency: UGA’s Interactive Cost Calculator
The Challenge
The University of Georgia’s (UGA) bursar office committed to launching a public-facing, interactive cost calculator so students and families could understand the true cost of attendance, not just tuition. The team faced several hurdles:
- Condensed timeline: The idea surfaced in April 2020 with a required go-live by the end of June that year.
- Complex business logic: Costs vary by campus, residency (in/out-of-state), level (undergrad/grad), modality (online e-rate vs. on-campus), credit hours, housing, dining plans, and parking, and each have nuanced if/then rules.
- Disparate data sources: Multiple departments (housing, dining, parking, bursar, etc.) provide siloed Excel files with different structures and evolving fields.
- Public reliability requirements: As a student-facing tool, it is needed to ensure accuracy across limitless combinations, undergo thorough user acceptance testing, and integrate smoothly with the website.
- Future ownership: The solution had to be sustainable and maintainable by the UGA team, not just a one-off build by a partner.
Key Highlights
Avaap led an agile, prototype-first engagement to design, build, and deploy the calculator, using software partner platforms Alteryx and Tableau. Avaap took a rapid, iterative approach to quickly create a working prototype, enabling them to collect stakeholder feedback through the build phase. The team then used Alteryx for data engineering, standardizing and blending departmental Excel sources, and enforcing common keys (e.g., Campus, Level). This led to a single source of truth to drive totals and subtotals in the calculator. Avaap also implemented the complex rules that drive cost combinations while keeping the model performing, all while respecting Tableau Public row limits.
The Avaap team then built the final solution as an interactive application in Tableau. This tool-like user experience was different than a regular dashboard. It had calculated fields for conditional logic, along with features such as “show only relevant values” to prevent unrealistic selections, and tooltips that echo choices and provide guidance. In addition, the team added link actions to policy pages (e.g., dining plan details, parking maps) and provided both desktop and mobile versions. This tool embedded seamlessly on the UGA bursar site and leveraged the Tableau Server to securely share and collaborate seamlessly via multiple stakeholders.
To wrap up the project, the Avaap team led change management efforts and knowledge transfer sessions, including documented logic and workflows, optimized for refresh, and transitions the project ownership to the UGA team. Avaap also trained the UGA finance team to use Alteryx or automation and Tableau for presentation, building internal momentum.
The project launched on time, delivering a public-facing cost calculator in just two months despite changing conditions and shifting requirements. This tool provides UGA students and their families with holistic transparency, as they are now able to see and estimate all-in costs, including tuition, mandatory fees, housing, dining, and parking, all in one place. This leads to better decisions – students can try any number of combinations, such as on-campus versus online, to find a solution that fits their budget. Overall, this solution provides the transparency and data that students and families need to make higher education accessible to all.
Beyond the calculator, the UGA team now uses Alteryx to automate formerly manual Excel processes, reducing time spent from months to just days, along with Tableau for consistent, shareable analytics across departments.
By delivering a sustainable, user-friendly solution that empowers students and families with full cost transparency, Avaap helped UGA set a new standard for accessibility and informed decision-making in higher education.
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