Understanding Financial Aid Offers

It can often be challenging for students and families to figure out how to read, understand and compare financial aid award letters from various colleges.  This is because so many colleges have different ways of calculating and reporting different financial obligations.  

One of the most frequent components you'll see is tuition/ fees.  If you will be living on campus there are room/ board costs.  And then also, Cost of Attendance, which is what colleges actually use as the starting point of all of the costs associated with attending their college.  For example, this typically includes books, travel, incidentals and other necessities like laundry costs.  Your Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) is another term you might find on your financial aid award letter and this is the amount that the FAFSA indicates that your family can afford to pay.  Sadly, the EFC doesn't typically align with what students and families actually think they can pay... not to mention that many colleges will still leave the families needing to pay even more than their EFC.  See, it's confusing and can be overwhelming, right?

Because making decisions related to college that you will actually be able to afford in the future is essential, there are lots of resources available online focused on understanding the award letters and making comparsions between the packages offered from various schools.  I am going to link to a few below and I hope you will find them helpful.  If you have any questions, please feel free to stop and see me and we can try to figure it out or you can always call the financial aid office at the college for clarification.


Award Letter Comparison Tool

FastWeb Reference Guide for Comparing Offers

How to Decipher a Financial Aid Letter

How to Compare College Aid Letters

5 Things to Know about College Financial Aid Award Letters