The college that looks cheapest in year one is often the dearer one by graduation, because tuition rises every year and a fixed grant does not.
An award letter mixes together money you keep and money you have to pay back. Take the loans back out and the real price appears — and it is often a very different ranking from the one the letters suggest.
| College | Year one, after grants | Year four | Four years in total |
|---|
Simplified on purpose. Grants are held flat while costs rise, which is what usually happens when an award is a fixed dollar amount rather than a percentage. It does not model work-study, outside scholarships, or interest on the loans. The full spreadsheet does, for five colleges at once.
Because a loan is not aid, it is a bill that arrives later with interest on top. A letter that offers you a big loan can look generous while leaving you with more to pay than a letter that offers less.
Because most grant awards are a fixed dollar amount and tuition goes up every year. The gap you are not shown widens each year, and by year four the two prices can have swapped places.
No. Cost of attendance includes housing, food, books, transport and fees. Comparing tuition alone is how families end up thousands short.
The calculator above is deliberately simple. The full spreadsheet does the whole job — every award letter side by side, all four years, with tuition rises and the loans taken back out. It opens in Excel and works just as well in free Google Sheets.
Get the full College Cost Comparison spreadsheet Or start with our free Mini Budget Tracker