How can I compare the affordability of Johns Hopkins and Harvey Mudd after financial aid?

Compare the two official financial-aid offers line by line, using the same one-year net-cost calculation: billed costs minus grants and scholarships that do not need to be repaid. Johns Hopkins and Harvey Mudd may both appear costly at sticker price, but their grants, work-study expectations, and treatment of travel or personal expenses can produce meaningfully different family costs. Do not treat a larger total aid figure as automatically better, since it may include loans or work-study.

Start with each school’s direct charges: tuition, mandatory fees, housing, and meal plan. Then subtract only institutional, federal, and state grants or scholarships. Keep loans in a separate column, including federal student loans and any parent or private borrowing; these are financing, not a reduction in price. Also list work-study separately, because it is earned through a campus job over the year rather than applied upfront like a grant.

Next, compare costs that may not appear on the bill: health insurance if required or needed, books and supplies, transportation from home to Baltimore or Claremont, winter travel, and personal expenses. Harvey Mudd’s Southern California location and Johns Hopkins’s Baltimore location can create different travel and housing considerations, especially if you expect to remain on campus during breaks.

Check whether each grant is renewable for four years and what conditions apply, such as maintaining satisfactory academic progress, filing aid forms annually, or changes in family income. Ask each financial-aid office to clarify any unclear item in writing, particularly whether the package contains expected parent borrowing, whether outside scholarships reduce grants, and how an appeal would work if your family’s current finances differ from the information on the FAFSA or CSS Profile.

Finally, make a four-year worksheet using conservative estimates for tuition increases and any known changes in family income. The most useful comparison is the amount your family would need to pay from income, savings, and non-loan resources each year, not the published cost of attendance or the headline aid total.