Compare aid offers
What would each college really cost you?
Every award letter looks different. Enter each one the same way: see the real price after grants, what you'd borrow, and the monthly payment after graduation. Your numbers stay on this device.
How to read an offer
- Grants and scholarships are free money. Loans are not aid you keep; you pay them back with interest. Work-study is money you earn at a campus job, paid as you work.
- Net price is the cost of attendance minus grants and scholarships. It's the number to compare. Some letters leave out housing, food, or books; ask each college for its full cost of attendance.
- Monthly payment assumes the standard 10-year plan and today's borrowing, repeated each year. It leaves out interest that builds while you're in school on unsubsidized loans, so the real payment can be a little higher.
- Rates: federal Direct Loans to undergraduates first paid out between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027 carry 6.52%; Parent PLUS loans 9.07%. Private loan rates vary; use the one on your offer. U.S. Department of Education ↗
- If an offer looks low, or your family's finances changed, you can ask the college's aid office to review it.
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