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For example, enter 2026 for the 2026–27 academic year.
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Use the expected enrollment period and update it when the program timeline changes.
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$USD/year
Use the institution's current annual charge basis.
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$USD/year
Use the school's allowance or a current estimate on the same annual basis.
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$USD/year
Include only costs that belong to the same enrollment period.
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$USD/year
Use the current annual transportation allowance or estimate.
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$USD/year
Avoid counting an amount already included in another row.
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$USD/year
Use the current offer and verify renewal terms for later years.
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$USD/year
Count only funds expected to be available; work-study must be earned and may not cover upfront charges.
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%/year
The neutral default is 0%; use a documented planning assumption.
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%/year
The neutral default is 0%; verify renewal conditions before projecting growth.
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%/year
The neutral default is 0%; include only funds reasonably expected to be available.
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Academic yearGross costGift aidNet priceAvailable fundsGapSurplusCopy
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The chart renderer is unavailable. The same annual values remain available in the year plan.

Review itemCurrent planNext checkCopy
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A college price is rarely one number. Published tuition covers only part of the annual budget, while housing, food, books, supplies, transportation, and other education costs can materially change what attendance requires. A useful plan puts every amount on the same academic-year basis before comparing schools or funding choices.

Three terms keep the comparison clear. Gross cost is the sum of the included education costs. Gift aid is grants and scholarships that generally do not need to be repaid. Net price is gross cost minus gift aid. Loans do not reduce net price because they replace when payment happens rather than remove the cost.

Available funding
Savings and income reasonably expected to be available for the academic year.
Funding gap
The portion of net price not covered by the available funding entered in the plan.
Surplus
Available funding above net price for that year. It is not automatically carried into another year.

Later years deserve their own rows because costs and resources do not always change together. Tuition may rise while a fixed scholarship stays flat. Family income may grow, but a one-time savings balance should not be treated as recurring annual funding. Applying one growth assumption to each category makes the effect visible, though it remains a scenario rather than a forecast.

Financial-aid offers also need careful reading. Renewal conditions, enrollment level, residency, housing choice, satisfactory academic progress, and program length can alter later awards. Federal Work-Study must be earned through a job and may not be available when a bill is due, so it should not be treated like an unconditional grant or cash balance.

A funding gap is a planning signal, not a recommendation to borrow that amount. Taxes, loan fees, interest, repayment terms, emergency reserves, cost changes, and expenses outside the chosen categories can change the final decision. Update the plan when an institution publishes a new cost budget or aid offer.

How to Use This Tool:

Build the first academic year from amounts that describe the same student, enrollment period, and institution.

  1. Enter the First academic year and expected Program length from 1 to 8 years.
  2. Add tuition and fees, housing and food, books and supplies, transportation, and other education costs on one annual basis. Avoid counting a charge in more than one row.
  3. Enter Grants and scholarships from the current offer. Include only gift aid and check its renewal conditions before projecting later years.
  4. Enter Available savings and income only when those funds are expected to be available for each modeled year. Do not enter loans here as if they reduced the price.
  5. Set separate annual growth rates for costs, gift aid, and available funding. Leave a rate at 0% when there is no documented assumption; accepted rates run from -50% through 50%.
  6. Review each academic year's gross cost, net price, gap, or surplus. If projected gift aid exceeds gross cost, correct the cost basis or aid amount before using the totals.

Interpreting Results:

The year table matters more than the final total. A four-year gap concentrated in the first year creates a different cash need from the same total spread evenly. Compare each row with the date when bills are due and with the conditions attached to that year's aid.

  • Net price equals gross cost minus grants and scholarships; it is never allowed to fall below zero in a valid plan.
  • Gap is positive only when net price exceeds available funding. Surplus is positive only in the opposite case, so both are not positive for the same year.
  • Growth assumptions compound from the first-year amount. A 3% cost rate does not mean that every school charge will actually rise by 3%.

Technical Details:

All monetary inputs are converted to integer U.S. cents. Each annual category grows independently, and the result is rounded to the nearest cent after every one-year compounding step. That repeated rounding can differ slightly from applying a multi-year exponent once and rounding only at the end.

Formula Core:

For year index y, where the first academic year is 0, a base amount A and annual rate r produce the following projected amount. In the actual plan, the same rule is applied one year at a time with cent rounding after each step.

Ay = A (1+r100)y

Within each academic year, the reconciliation is:

GrossCosty = ∑cost rowsAy NetPricey = GrossCosty−GiftAidy Gapy = max(0,NetPricey−Fundingy) Surplusy = max(0,Fundingy−NetPricey)

Rule Core:

Rule Boundary or effect
Program length Whole number from 1 through 8 years.
Annual amounts $0 through $10,000,000 per category, with at most two decimal places.
Growth rates -50% through 50%, inclusive, with at most two decimal places.
Gift aid check Every projected year must satisfy gift aid ≤ gross cost; otherwise the plan stops with a correction message.
Totals Sum the year-level amounts. A surplus is not automatically carried forward to reduce another year's gap.

With the built-in first-year amounts and 0% growth, gross cost is $46,500, gift aid is $15,000, net price is $31,500, and available funding is $12,000. The annual gap is therefore $19,500. A four-year plan repeats those annual values and totals a $78,000 funding gap.

Limitations:

This is an educational planning scenario, not financial advice or an institutional aid calculation.

  • It does not calculate loan interest, origination fees, taxes, inflation from an external index, or the timing of payments within an academic year.
  • It assumes each entered category follows its selected annual rate and does not model one-time funding separately.
  • Institutional cost of attendance, aid eligibility, and renewal rules remain authoritative for the student's actual offer.

References: