Make the education investment with eyes wide open.
The average bachelor's degree now costs over $100,000 at a four-year private institution — and the financing decisions families make can follow graduates for decades. Whether you're saving for a child's education or managing existing student debt, the math matters more than ever.
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College Tuition Calculator
Compare repayment strategies — standard, income-driven, avalanche, and snowball — to find the plan that minimizes total cost while fitting your monthly budget. See how extra payments accelerate your payoff timeline.
Planning & Paying for College
College ROI Calculator
Is that degree worth the investment?
Financial Aid Estimator
Estimate your expected family contribution
Is College Worth It? A Return on Investment Analysis
How to evaluate the financial return of different colleges and majors, factoring in earnings premiums and opportunity costs.
Navigating Financial Aid and the FAFSA
How Expected Family Contribution is calculated, strategies to maximize aid eligibility, and common FAFSA mistakes.
Student Loan Repayment
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I estimate my actual out-of-pocket cost at a specific college?
Start with the school's Net Price Calculator — every college receiving federal aid is required to publish one. It estimates your cost of attendance minus institutional grant aid, giving you a realistic out-of-pocket number. The gap between sticker price and net price is enormous at many private colleges: a family earning $75,000 might pay $30,000 per year rather than the $80,000 published price. Once you have actual aid offers in hand, compare them on net price, not sticker price, and be careful to distinguish grants (free) from loans (debt) in the aid package. Our College Tuition Calculator lets you project those costs forward with tuition inflation assumptions.
What's the difference between subsidized and unsubsidized federal student loans?
Both types carry the same fixed interest rate for undergraduates (6.53% for 2024–25). The critical difference is who pays the interest while you're in school. The federal government covers interest on subsidized loans during enrollment, the 6-month grace period after graduation, and any authorized deferment periods. With unsubsidized loans, interest accrues immediately — if you don't pay it, it capitalizes into your principal balance and you end up paying interest on interest. Undergraduates can borrow $3,500–$5,500 in subsidized loans per year depending on their year in school, plus an additional $2,000 in unsubsidized loans. Graduate students are only eligible for unsubsidized loans.
What income-driven repayment plans are available for federal loans?
There are four main IDR plans. IBR (Income-Based Repayment) caps payments at 10% of discretionary income for new borrowers, with forgiveness after 20 years. PAYE (Pay As You Earn) also caps at 10%, with forgiveness after 20 years, but has stricter eligibility requirements. SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education), introduced in 2023, caps undergraduate loan payments at 5% of discretionary income and provides forgiveness on smaller balances in as few as 10 years. ICR (Income-Contingent Repayment) is less favorable and primarily used by borrowers with Parent PLUS loans who consolidate. All plans require annual income recertification and count qualifying payments toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
How do I calculate whether a specific college degree is financially worth it?
Compare the degree's total cost (tuition, fees, room and board, plus opportunity cost of forgone earnings while in school) against the lifetime earnings premium it delivers above the earnings path without that degree. A $200,000 four-year degree that increases lifetime earnings by $600,000 has a strong positive ROI; one delivering only $100,000 in additional earnings does not. Major matters enormously — median earnings for engineering graduates substantially exceed those in fine arts or education. The College Scorecard at collegescorecard.ed.gov publishes median earnings 10 years after enrollment by school and program, giving you the data to run this analysis for specific combinations.
How does filing the FAFSA affect financial aid eligibility?
The FAFSA determines eligibility for all federal student aid — grants, loans, and work-study — and is required for most institutional aid as well. The formula calculates a Student Aid Index (SAI) based on family income, assets, household size, and number of students in college. Schools subtract the SAI from cost of attendance to determine demonstrated financial need. Institutional grants then fill some or all of that gap depending on the school's resources and policies. File as early as possible after October 1 of your senior year — many schools award institutional aid on a rolling, first-come basis until funds are exhausted. Income and assets in the prior-prior year are used, so financial positioning the year before junior year can affect aid significantly.
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