Scholarship Calculator

A large difference. A $10,000 award marked One-Time contributes exactly $10,000 across a four-year program, the same award marked Per Year contributes $40,000 (paid again each year), and the same award marked Per Semester contributes $80,000 (this calculator treats a full academic year as two semesters, so it doubles the per-year total). Getting this field wrong is one of the most common ways students overestimate or underestimate what a scholarship actually covers over their full time in school.

Because tuition is typically the largest single cost category entered into this calculator, a given percentage change in tuition moves the total cost of attendance -- and therefore the out-of-pocket total -- by a larger dollar amount than the same percentage change in a smaller category like books and supplies. This isn't a quirk of the calculator; it reflects that tuition genuinely dominates the total cost structure for most students, which is why scholarship negotiations and aid-seeking efforts usually focus there first.

Aid Coverage expresses your total scholarship and aid as a percentage of your total cost of attendance, which makes it easier to compare offers or track progress toward fully funding your education regardless of how large the underlying dollar figures are. A student with a $200,000 total cost and $100,000 in aid has the same 50% coverage as a student with a $40,000 total cost and $20,000 in aid, even though the dollar gap remaining is very different -- the percentage isolates how much of the cost problem is actually solved.

They reduce your out-of-pocket total by the identical dollar amount when compared consistently across the same number of years, since both feed directly into total aid before it's subtracted from total cost. The practical difference is in how each is entered: Other Aid is always treated as a flat annual figure, while Scholarship Amount's actual yearly contribution depends entirely on the Scholarship Frequency setting, so make sure that setting matches how your specific award is actually paid out before comparing the two.