Clinton Wants to Show What Her College Plan Would Save You. Here’s What Some People Learned.

Hillary Clinton this week shared a stage in New Hampshire with Sen. Bernie Sanders, as part of a campaign event to promote Mrs. Clinton’s plan for “debt-free college.” Her proposal borrowed from Mr. Sanders, her opponent in the Democratic primaries and a popular figure among younger voters.

Mrs. Clinton’s plan would cover tuition at public colleges for students from families making up to $125,000 a year. She also discussed her proposals for easing the burden on existing borrowers, who could refinance their loans, among other things. And she gave out the web address for a calculator her campaign had recently unveiled to help those in either group “see how our college plan will actually help you. Not in general, but really specifically.”

Some supporters who had tuned in to the speech took her up on an offer to use the tool to see how much they could save. The calculator has two components: “I have student debt” and “I am planning for college.” Users have the opportunity to share their results on social media. Tweets using the website’s boilerplate language — “Under Hillary Clinton’s debt-free college plan, I will save,” followed by a dollar amount — popped up on Twitter as Mrs. Clinton was talking. (Users can also post their results on Facebook.)

The Chronicle spoke with a handful of Clinton supporters who tweeted their calculator results, which varied drastically. While all of them were happy to see how the plan could save them money, some also saw shortcomings in Mrs. Clinton’s approach.

The tool is designed to show users their potential savings quickly and easily. But student-loan policies always come with some fine print, and someone who looks at the tool for only a minute or two could easily miss details.

And like all such calculators, the estimates on Mrs. Clinton’s are only as accurate as the information that users provide. The savings current borrowers will see, for instance, depend on their existing interest rates and years left in repayment. Getting those numbers wrong would skew their results.

Stephany Gordon heard about the calculator on the news and decided to check it out. Ms. Gordon, who lives in Philadelphia and practices law in New Jersey, earned her bachelor’s degree in 2004 and her law degree in 2015. After an eight-year break between college and law school, she said, she saw that student-loan interest rates had risen. And they’re higher, she said, than the interest rate on her car loan, or on the home loan she took out in Texas, where she used to live.

Ms. Gordon filled out the calculator using an average of her various interest rates and an estimate of her student-loan debt, which she thinks is around $160,000. Her results showed a savings of $54,960, which she said was “amazing.”

Originally a supporter of Mr. Sanders, Ms. Gordon said she was happy to see Mrs. Clinton’s education proposals aligning with his.

Stacey Harris learned of the calculator while she was at work. Ms. Harris, who lives in Virginia Beach and graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2013, regularly streams the news during her work day at a property-management company.

She pulled up the calculator on her phone, and typed in some information about the $34,000 she owes. According to the calculator, Mrs. Clinton’s plan would save her $13,920 over the life of the loan.

Ms. Harris had mixed feelings about the results, she said. On the one hand, $13,000 would be enough to buy her own car — right now, she’s using her mom’s. On the other, “I was kind of disappointed because it’s still so much” to repay, she said.

Ms. Harris is also aware that Mrs. Clinton’s plan is more generous for future students. After all, they’re the ones who would benefit from debt-free college.

“I wish that was in place when I was taking out all the loans or going to school,” Ms. Harris said. Still, she added, she was glad Mrs. Clinton plans to do something to help people, like her, who have already borrowed.

Jerry Blake could benefit from the debt-free college plan, if Mrs. Clinton is elected and she manages to push it through Congress. His oldest child, Kayla, is a junior in high school who hopes to attend Millersville University of Pennsylvania, about 40 minutes from their home outside of York, Pa.

Mr. Blake heard about the calculator during Mrs. Clinton’s speech and filled it out to see what he might save on Kayla’s college education. He came up with $53,560.

That result, Mr. Blake said, will hold unless his income goes up too much. An instrument and electrical technician, Mr. Blake saw his pay slashed under the last contract at his unionized company, he said. At present, he does fall under the $125,000 cap to qualify for Mrs. Clinton’s debt-free college plan. (The calculator shows savings for families earning up to $125,000, but the campaign has said it will begin by offering the benefit to those earning up to $85,000 and expand it over four years.)

Mr. Blake, 56, hasn’t really saved for college for his two children, he said. As a result, “pretty much retirement was out of the question.”

A Clinton supporter, Mr. Blake said that her campaign could do more to highlight that the plan would help people like him, not just students. “If this went through,” he said, “I could start thinking about retirement.”

Kristine Wadosky saw the calculator on social media days ahead of Mrs. Clinton’s speech. Ms. Wadosky, a postdoctoral fellow at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, in Buffalo, N.Y., has debt only from her undergraduate degree — her Ph.D. was supported by grants.

And she’s lucky to have lower-than-average undergraduate debt, Ms. Wadosky said. A first-generation college student, she went to the University of Rochester, which gave her good financial aid. “I’m in an OK place,” she said, “and I still have to spend 10 years paying it off.”

Although she has only about $16,000 in loans, Ms. Wadosky’s income as a postdoc means her finances are tight. “I literally don’t save any money” other than in her 401(k) plan, she said. She doesn’t even have enough to cover one month of bills.

Since the interest rates on her student loans are higher than the interest she could earn on savings, it makes more sense to pay down her debt than to save, she said.

Ms. Wadosky expects things to look up for her when new overtime rules take effect this year, raising her low salary.

When Ms. Wadosky filled out the calculator, it showed that she would save $2,376. She posted the result on Facebook, where someone commented that it would be better if the plan saved her more money.

But that wasn’t Ms. Wadosky’s attitude. “I’m a couponer,” she said. Saving even 50 cents, she said, makes her happy.

Beckie Supiano writes about college affordability, the job market for new graduates, and professional schools, among other things. Follow her on Twitter @becksup, or drop her a line at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.