--- title: How to Read a Financial Aid Letter | TIME description: College financial aid letters are pretty confusing and don't conform to one standard. We try to make it a little easier. canonical: https://time.com/video/qkHNVZz4/ og:title: How to Read a Financial Aid Letter og:description: College financial aid letters are pretty confusing and don't conform to one standard. We try to make it a little easier. og:url: https://time.com/video/qkHNVZz4/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qkHNVZz4/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Read a Financial Aid Letter twitter:description: College financial aid letters are pretty confusing and don't conform to one standard. We try to make it a little easier. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qkHNVZz4/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # How to Read a Financial Aid Letter > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: How to Read a Financial Aid Letter [Watch (HLS stream): How to Read a Financial Aid Letter](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qkHNVZz4.m3u8) (2:12)  _Published 2015-10-20. College financial aid letters are pretty confusing and don't conform to one standard. We try to make it a little easier._ --- Jul 27, 2023 7:00 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [What You Should Know About Financial Aid](/video/LLGKk1Fc/) ### What You Should Know About Financial Aid [How to Be Smart About Financial Aid](/video/VPafjK23/) ### How to Be Smart About Financial Aid [Financial Aid Advice...for High School Freshmen](/video/puGeNQwS/) ### Financial Aid Advice...for High School Freshmen --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] These are real financial aid letters sent in the spring of 2015 to a student who had a very good GPA, and whose family earned about $ 100, 000 a year. There are two main points we can take away from these letters. The first one is how confusing they are. If you look at these letters, it's almost impossible to figure out how much does a family actually have to pay, what is their true net price? And by net price I mean what is the full cost of attendance including living expenses and books, and travel? Minus only scholarships and grants, not loans because you're gonna have to pay those back. One of these letters from Loyola University indicates that a PLUS loan is part of the aide package. Now a PLUS loan is a federal parent loan. They charge very high interest and they require a credit check. So, if you have poor credit, you're not going to get this. It shouldn't really be considered part of the aid package. It's a separate deal. That same school also includes a work study award Now this is not guaranteed money, audited, you have to actually earn that money. The variation in these letters show how important it is that schools adopt the federal standardized financial aid letter, that way this family and other families like them could Easily compare on an apples to apples basis exactly how much they're really gonna have to pay for college. The other big lesson from these letters is how important it is for students to apply to a variety of colleges. I did the math and I researched exactly how much it's gonna cost this student to attend school. If she attends the University of Illinois Chicago and lives at home, she will spend maybe $ 20, 000 per year. If she goes to Loyola and lives on campus, it will cost her $ 39, 000 a year, that's a huge variation. When you price out a college, consider the total cost of attendance, that's a federally defined term that includes tuition, fees, room, board, textbooks, travel to and from campus, and miscellaneous expenses. Every college by law now has to have a net price calculator to allow you to estimate at least what your net price is going to be. [ MUSIC ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How to Read a Financial Aid Letter","description":"College financial aid letters are pretty confusing and don't conform to one standard. We try to make it a little easier.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qkHNVZz4/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-10-20T23:13:38.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qkHNVZz4.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/qkHNVZz4/","duration":"PT2M12S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/qkHNVZz4/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```