Tuition Affordability Calculator

Grant / Need-Based Aid adds directly into Total Annual Aid, which is then subtracted from Total Cost of Attendance to produce Net Annual Cost -- the figure % of Income is based on. More grant aid lowers Net Annual Cost (down to a floor of zero if aid ever exceeds the total cost), which in turn lowers % of Income and can move Affordability Rating into a more favorable tier.

Net Annual Cost is floored at zero -- it subtracts Total Annual Aid from Total Cost of Attendance but never goes negative, even if Grant / Need-Based Aid plus Scholarships together exceed the sum of Annual Tuition, Room & Board, and Fees & Books. In that case % of Income and Affordability Rating would both reflect a 0% cost, since there's no remaining out-of-pocket expense to measure against income.

% of Income and Affordability Rating are both based on Net Annual Cost, which is a single year's figure -- Years of Study only comes into play for Total Net Cost (All Years), which multiplies Net Annual Cost by the number of years to show the full multi-year total. The annual affordability comparison against your income stays the same regardless of how many years you expect the degree to take.

Affordability Rating bands % of Income into five tiers this calculator defines itself (Very Affordable at 10% or under, up through Very High Burden above 50%) for a quick, readable summary -- it is not a citation to a specific published standard from a financial aid authority or government agency. Use it as a general orientation, not an official affordability determination.

Aid Coverage divides Total Annual Aid by Total Cost of Attendance, showing what share of the full sticker price your aid package offsets. % of Income instead divides Net Annual Cost (what's left after aid) by Household Income, showing how much of your own income the remaining bill represents. A high Aid Coverage and a low % of Income both indicate a more affordable situation, but they measure different things -- coverage of the sticker price versus burden on your income. Aid Coverage is capped at 100% (aid beyond the full cost isn't counted as extra), and it reads "--" instead of a percentage when Total Cost of Attendance is $0, since coverage of a nonexistent cost isn't a meaningful ratio even if real aid was entered.