CCollegeMatcher

💵 Up to 6 colleges · US award letters

Compare your financial aid offers. Find each college's real net cost.

Award letters are hard to compare: every college lays its letter out differently, and most mix grants you keep with loans you repay. Type in each letter's figures and this page lines them up the same way — cost of attendance, gift aid, and the net costyou'd need to cover with savings, work and loans — then estimates four years and the monthly repayment on the federal loans offered.

Everything you enter stays in this browser (it is saved here so you can come back to it) and nothing is sent to us. Print it or copy a plain-text summary to share with your family or a counselor.

Group 1

Cost of attendance

Tuition and fees, housing and meals, books and supplies, transport and personal costs — the college's own estimate of a year.

Group 2

Gift aid

Grants and scholarships from the college, the federal Pell Grant, a state grant and any outside scholarships. Never repaid.

Group 3

Self-help

Federal Work-Study, Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans, a Parent PLUS Loan and any private loan. Earned or borrowed — never a discount.

Your award letters

Type each letter's figures for one year. Leave a line blank if the letter doesn't have it — blanks count as zero and show as “—”.

Offer 1

Cost of attendance

What the college says a year costs, before any aid. Letters sometimes list only tuition — check the college's cost-of-attendance page for the rest.

On-campus room and board, or the college's estimate for living off campus.

Gift aid — never repaid

Grants and scholarships. This is the only part of the letter that lowers what you pay.

Sometimes called institutional aid, merit aid or a named scholarship.

Awards you won yourself. Ask whether the college reduces its own aid when you bring one.

Self-help — earned or borrowed

Work-study is a job you'd have to work; loans are money you'd have to repay with interest. Neither lowers the cost.

The most you could earn in a campus job — paid as wages, not taken off the bill.

In the student's name. The government pays the interest while you're enrolled at least half-time.

In the student's name. Interest builds from the day it's paid out.

In a parent's name, at a higher rate. Many letters list it to make the gap look closed.

From a bank or the college itself. Rates vary, so the repayment estimate leaves these out.

Offer 2

Cost of attendance

What the college says a year costs, before any aid. Letters sometimes list only tuition — check the college's cost-of-attendance page for the rest.

On-campus room and board, or the college's estimate for living off campus.

Gift aid — never repaid

Grants and scholarships. This is the only part of the letter that lowers what you pay.

Sometimes called institutional aid, merit aid or a named scholarship.

Awards you won yourself. Ask whether the college reduces its own aid when you bring one.

Self-help — earned or borrowed

Work-study is a job you'd have to work; loans are money you'd have to repay with interest. Neither lowers the cost.

The most you could earn in a campus job — paid as wages, not taken off the bill.

In the student's name. The government pays the interest while you're enrolled at least half-time.

In the student's name. Interest builds from the day it's paid out.

In a parent's name, at a higher rate. Many letters list it to make the gap look closed.

From a bank or the college itself. Rates vary, so the repayment estimate leaves these out.

Side by side

The headline is net cost: cost of attendance minus gift aid. Loans and work-study are ways of paying it, not reductions of it.

% a year

Your assumption, not a forecast. 0 repeats this year's figures four times; colleges' prices usually rise each year, and most gift aid does not rise with them.

Your financial aid offers side by side
Per yearOffer 1Offer 2
Cost of attendancetuition, housing, books, transport and personal——
Gift aidgrants and scholarships — never repaid——
Net costcost − gift aid: what you'd need to cover with savings, work, and loans——
Covered by loansevery loan on the letter, to be repaid with interest——
Work-studywages you'd earn by working, not a discount——
Out of pocket after loans and work-studynet cost − loans − work-study: the gap the letter leaves open——
Four-year net costnet cost × 4, assuming no increase — your assumption——
Borrowed over four yearsthe letter's loans, taken again each year——
Est. monthly paymentfederal loans only, standard 10-year plan, at 2026–27 rates——

Rates: Federal Student Aid, read 2026-10-24 — 91 FR 57581, 10 September 2026, Chart 1: Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans to undergraduates 6.52%, Parent PLUS 9.07%, fixed, for loans first paid out from July 1, 2026 to before July 1, 2027. The estimate applies this year's rates to four years of the same loans on the Standard Repayment Plan (120level monthly payments); later years' loans will carry the rates set each July, interest that builds on unsubsidized and PLUS loans while you study is not added, and a loan fee is deducted from each Direct Loan before it reaches the college, so slightly less arrives than you repay. Everything you type stays in this browser — nothing is sent to us.

Before you decide

The things award letters leave out, in plain words. None of this is advice about which college to pick — it is what to ask before you compare the numbers.

Gift aid may be for the first year only
A scholarship on the letter is a one-year figure. Ask each college in writing whether it renews for all four years, whether the amount is fixed or shrinks as tuition rises, and what GPA or credit load you must keep. A merit award with a 3.5 GPA condition is a different offer from one with none.
Loans must be repaid, with interest
Letters often list Direct Loans and a Parent PLUS Loan in the same column as grants, so the total looks like it covers everything. It doesn't: every loan is money you or your parents pay back, and interest on unsubsidized and PLUS loans starts building the day the money arrives. The table here keeps loans out of the net cost on purpose.
Work-study is money you earn
A Federal Work-Study award is the most you could earn in a part-time campus job during the year, paid to you as wages. It never comes off the bill, you have to find the job and work the hours, and it is not guaranteed in later years.
Net cost is not the net price calculator or the SAI
The net price a college's calculator quoted you was an estimate; the letter is the real offer, and this page works from the letter. The Student Aid Index (SAI) from your FAFSA is not a bill either — it is one input colleges use to decide need-based aid. Neither is entered here, and this tool does not estimate your SAI.
Check the cost side as carefully as the aid side
One letter may show every cost line; another may list tuition only and leave housing, books and transport for you to find. A low 'cost' can be an incomplete one. The college's cost-of-attendance page has the full figure the aid office used.
You can appeal
If one offer is clearly better, or your family's situation changed since the FAFSA, ask the other colleges' aid offices to review the award. Colleges call it an appeal or a professional-judgement review; many will look at a competing letter.

What this page does — and doesn't

  • It adds up the figures you type, from the letters you have. It uses no data about any college, so a name you enter is a label only — nothing is looked up or matched.
  • The monthly payment is an estimate for the federal loans only, at the fixed rates for loans first paid out in 2026–27 (6.52% undergraduate Direct Loans, 9.07% Parent PLUS), repaid over the 10-year Standard Repayment Plan. Later years' loans will carry the rates set each July, and private loans are left out because their rates vary.
  • It does not estimate your Student Aid Index, your eligibility for any grant, or what a college might offer on appeal.
  • Still choosing where to apply? The US college matcher compares colleges by net price for your income band, and you can browse colleges by state.