About the Cost of Attendance & Net Price Calculator
This cost of attendance and net price calculator builds a complete one-year college budget and shows what you will actually pay once free money is taken off. Enter tuition and fees, housing, food, books and supplies, transportation, personal expenses and health insurance to get the cost of attendance (COA). Then enter grants and scholarships — federal, state, from the college and from outside — to get the net price, the amount you have to cover with savings, income, work or loans.
Use it to compare financial aid offers side by side, to sanity-check a college’s own net price calculator, or to plan a realistic student budget. Because colleges present aid letters in different formats, putting every offer into the same structure is the easiest way to see which school is truly cheaper.
Only gift aid (grants and scholarships) is subtracted. Loans and work-study are ways to pay the net price, not reductions in it, so they are deliberately left out. The multi-year total raises costs by your chosen annual increase while keeping grants flat unless you set an aid increase — many institutional awards are fixed for four years, so this is a cautious default.
With the default inputs, the net price (first year) is $18,100. Change any value above to recalculate instantly.
How to use the cost of attendance & net price calculator
- 1Copy each cost line from the college’s cost of attendance page or aid offer.
- 2Enter your grants and scholarships by source — leave out loans and work-study.
- 3Choose how many years you expect to take to graduate.
- 4Set an annual cost increase and, if your aid is renewable with increases, an aid increase.
- 5Compare the net price across schools by repeating with each offer.
Formula and method
The cost of attendance follows the same categories colleges use in their official budgets: direct costs billed by the school (tuition, fees and often housing and a meal plan) plus indirect costs you pay yourself (books, transportation, personal expenses and insurance). The net price subtracts only gift aid — federal and state grants, institutional grants and scholarships, and outside scholarships — because that money never has to be repaid or earned.
For the whole degree, each year’s cost is raised by the annual cost increase, (1 + c)^(year − 1), while grants grow at the aid increase rate (0% by default). Gift aid is capped at the cost of attendance in any year, since federal rules generally stop total aid from exceeding the COA.
- COA
- Cost of attendance for one academic year
- c
- Annual cost increase
Worked examples
Public university with $11,500 in grants
Costs add up to $29,600. Subtracting $11,500 in federal, state, college and outside grants leaves a net price of $18,100 a year. Over four years with costs rising 3% and grants flat, the net price totals about $77,835.
Private college with a large institutional grant
A sticker price of $79,600 drops to a net price of $39,600 after a $40,000 college grant — a reminder to compare net prices, not sticker prices.
Grants growing with costs
When grants rise 3% a year along with costs, the net price grows only from $18,100 to about $19,778 by year four, and the four-year total is about $75,723 instead of $77,835.
Frequently asked questions
What is included in cost of attendance?+
Colleges’ COA includes tuition and fees, housing and food, books, course materials, supplies and equipment, transportation and personal expenses. It can also include loan fees, dependent care, disability-related costs and study-abroad costs where they apply.
What is the difference between sticker price and net price?+
The sticker price is the published cost of attendance. The net price is what remains after grants and scholarships — the amount your family actually has to pay with savings, income, work or loans.
Should student loans be subtracted to get net price?+
No. Loans have to be repaid with interest, and work-study must be earned, so they are ways of paying the net price rather than discounts. Some aid letters subtract them anyway, which makes a school look cheaper than it is.
Is the net price the same every year?+
Rarely. Tuition and living costs usually rise each year, while many college scholarships are fixed amounts. Federal grants depend on each year’s FAFSA, so they can rise or fall with family income.
How do I use this with a college’s net price calculator?+
Federal law requires colleges that take part in federal student aid and enroll first-time, full-time undergraduates to post a net price calculator on their website. Use it to estimate the grants you would receive, then enter them here with your own realistic living costs to compare schools on the same basis.
Results are estimates for educational purposes and are not financial advice. Rates, fees and terms vary — confirm with your lender or a licensed advisor before making decisions.