| name | compare-financial-aid-offers |
| category | money |
| description | Compare college financial-aid offers using consistent cost, grant, loan, work, renewal, and uncertainty definitions. Use when choosing between awards or questioning an aid package. |
compare-financial-aid-offers
Translate each offer into comparable cash and obligation scenarios. A headline award can mix discounts, debt, work, and conditional funding.
Procedure
- Gather the official award, cost-of-attendance components, billing schedule, residency status, and current school policies for the same academic period.
- Separate grants and scholarships from loans, work-study, family contribution, payment plans, and outside awards.
- Normalize tuition, mandatory fees, housing, food, books, transport, insurance, personal costs, and one-time charges.
- Calculate direct billed cost, estimated total cost, gift aid, net price before loans, borrowing, and remaining funding gap.
- Record loan type, amount, interest, fees, capitalization, repayment terms, and borrower.
- Check renewal criteria, duration, enrollment load, grade rules, housing assumptions, award displacement, and likely cost increases.
- Build low, expected, and high four-year scenarios using labeled assumptions.
- Compare academic fit and nonfinancial constraints separately from affordability.
- List discrepancies and prepare factual questions or a documented aid-reconsideration request.
Failure plan
- Do not call loans or work-study discounts.
- Never assume an award renews, costs stay flat, or work-study earnings are guaranteed.
- Verify current terms with the school and authoritative program sources; do not provide individualized legal or financial advice.
- Keep sensitive tax, identity, and account data out of shared comparison files.
Done
- Every offer is reconciled to the same cost and aid definitions
- One-year and multiyear scenarios are computed with visible assumptions
- Unknown terms and follow-up answers are recorded before a decision
