Award Letter Net Price Calculator

Award letters are not written to be compared. One school lists a total cost and subtracts everything, including loans. Another lists only what it is giving you. A third mixes grants, work-study, and a parent loan into a single "aid package" line that looks far larger than the help it contains.

The only number that compares cleanly across schools is net price: cost of attendance minus money you do not pay back. Work-study is not a discount — it is a job you have to work. Loans are not aid — they are the bill, delayed.

Put one school's numbers in below, write down the result, then do it again for the next school.

Reading the result

The number to write down is borrowed in year one. Do it for each school and the ranking usually changes — the school with the biggest scholarship is often not the cheapest, because its sticker price was higher to begin with.

What changes the answer

• Front-loaded merit aid. Some scholarships apply only to the first year. Ask, in writing, whether the award renews and what GPA it requires.
• Cost of attendance is an estimate. Housing and food figures are averages. If you will live off campus in an expensive market, the real number is higher.
• Five years, not four. If the program commonly runs long, run the calculation with five. A single extra year is usually the largest hidden cost in the whole decision.

If a school's package looks wrong, the appeal process is separate from admissions and has its own deadline. Ask the financial aid office for a professional judgment review.