If the school's budget for discretionary expenses doesn't seem reasonable, you will have to create your own estimate: Will you live off campus or skip the school's meal plan? Then you may be able to get by on less than the allotted amount. Will you be able to buy used textbooks or nab cheap airfares home? You may be able to shave a couple hundred dollars off the book or transportation allowance. Record any adjustments to each school's official budget.
Now add up any grants or scholarships and subtract the total from the expected cost of attendance. That's the real cost to attend the school. Compare it with the others on the list. If there's not a great deal of difference—perhaps $1,000 or $2,000 between the schools—then you can feel comfortable choosing on the merits of the school. If the difference is substantial—say, $10,000 or more—you have a tougher choice. Will it mean racking up huge student loan debt? Or do you want to start your adult life out with a degree that perhaps carries less cachet but fewer financial burdens?
Finally, tally up the loans and work-study and subtract that amount from the actual cost to determine how much money you and your parents will have to scrape up to pay for school. This number is important: Once you know exactly how much your family has to pay, it's easier to figure out whether you and your parents can swing it. That could mean withdrawing money from savings, squeezing it out of the family's regular cash flow—by sacrificing vacations, new cars, or home improvements, for instance—borrowing more money, or perhaps a combination of all three. Or it could mean your family needs to do some creative thinking, which could include some last-minute strategies like those detailed here.
Even with the numbers in front of you, it can be difficult to weigh one school against another. If the decision still isn't clear, there may be another lever to pull: Financial aid awards aren't always etched in stone.
Can the college do better?
A student who believes the aid package from his or her preferred school comes up short shouldn't be shy about asking the school's financial aid officer to reconsider the offer. "We get thousands of appeals," says Steve Van Ess, director of financial aid at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. At Amherst College, about 21 percent of aid applicants ask the institution to reevaluate their awards, says aid director Joe Paul Case. About 57 percent of them do get some additional aid, averaging about $3,200.
But tread gently. Financial aid officers despise the word "negotiate." They'll tell you in no uncertain terms that they don't play "let's make a deal." Instead, let the aid officer know that you'd like to "appeal" the award or ask him or her to "take another look." No doubt you'll get a friendlier reception.
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