That big scholarship offer might not be as generous as it looks. Here’s how to compare apples to apples and find the real number that matters.
🎯 Before You Get Too Excited…
Your kid gets their first college offer. It says they’ve been awarded $20,000 in scholarships. You celebrate.
But two weeks later, a different school offers $14,000 and somehow that one costs less.
How?
Because scholarship totals aren’t the number that matters. Net price is.
We built a free College Offer Comparison Sheet (PDF) to help families compare real costs side by side.
👉 Or visit the full guide here: College Cost Estimator & Comparison Tool
🧾 What to Look At First: Net Price, Not Sticker Price
Every school will show you their cost of attendance (COA) and then subtract scholarships and grants. The number left over is the net price—and that’s the number you’re actually paying.
| Term | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Cost of Attendance (COA) | Total price before aid (tuition, housing, meals, books, fees) |
| Grants & Scholarships | Free money (merit, need-based, state aid) |
| Net Price | What YOU pay after aid, not counting loans or work-study |
Two schools can offer very different scholarships and still end up costing the same or more. Net price is where the truth lives.
🧰 How to Use the Offer Comparison Sheet
- Print the PDF or open it in Google Sheets
👉 Download the College Offer Comparison Sheet (PDF) - Enter each school’s cost of attendance (use their website or award letter)
- Break out each kind of aid
- Institutional merit
- Federal and state grants (like Pell or MTAG)
- Outside scholarships
- Look carefully at the type of aid
- ✔️ Institutional aid (is it renewable each year?)
- ❗ Work study (not upfront money)
- ❗ Parent PLUS loans (not free aid)
- Do the math to find your net price
- Add any fine print notes
- GPA requirements for renewal
- Tuition-only restrictions
- Housing or enrollment conditions
🧠 Costs That Are Easy to Miss
Even with strong scholarships, some schools include costs that families often overlook:
- 💸 Required meal plans
- 🏠 Premium dorm upgrades
- 🏥 Auto-added student health insurance (you can waive this if you already have coverage)
- 🧪 Lab, studio, or materials fees
- 📚 Books and digital materials
✅ Pro Tip: Compare at Least 3 Schools
You don’t need ten options, but you do need perspective. When you compare three offers side by side, things become clear.
Sometimes the school offering a smaller scholarship ends up costing thousands less. That’s especially true when public universities are in the mix.
That’s exactly why this sheet exists.
🟨 Visit the full guide and download the sheet here.
🙋♂️ What I Learned the Hard Way
When my daughter’s first offer came in, it looked great. The number was big. The school felt like a win.
But when we used this sheet to line it up against other offers, we realized her actual cost was higher—even though the scholarship was bigger on paper.
That’s when it hit me. Scholarships don’t matter unless they lower your real cost. And you can’t know that unless you do the math.
🧩 Want to Keep Track of Scholarships Too?
If your kid is applying to multiple colleges, chances are you’re also juggling outside scholarships.
Use our Scholarship Tracker to keep it all in one place.
🎓 Still Deciding Between Schools?
If you’re comparing offers across different universities, make sure you know what merit aid is even possible before the award letters roll in.
🧭 Explore our public college scholarship guides to see which schools are the most generous.