How do I compare college financial aid packages side by side?

Make your own comparison sheet and ignore each college’s layout. The key number to compare is net price for one year: cost of attendance minus grants and scholarships only.

Start with each school’s total cost of attendance, including tuition, fees, housing, meal plan, books, transportation, and personal expenses. Then separate the aid into three buckets: gift aid, self-help aid, and extras.

Gift aid is money you do not repay, such as need-based grants, merit scholarships, and tuition discounts. Self-help aid includes federal loans, parent loans, and work-study. Extras can include health insurance waivers, one-time stipends, or estimated outside scholarships.

For a fair comparison, do not treat loans or work-study as reducing the real cost in the same way grants do. Loans help you pay now but must be repaid later. Work-study is not guaranteed upfront cash either, since you have to earn it through a campus job and the hours may be limited.

A simple format is: total cost of attendance, minus grants/scholarships, equals net price. Then list loans separately, work-study separately, and remaining family responsibility.

Also check whether any scholarships are renewable and what GPA or credit requirements you must meet to keep them. A package with a big first-year scholarship can be less attractive if it drops after year one.

Look closely at whether costs are estimates or billed charges. Transportation and personal expenses can vary a lot by student, while tuition, housing, and fees are usually more fixed. If one school includes health insurance and another does not, note that too.

If two offers are close, I’d pay special attention to total borrowing over four years, not just the first-year gap.