"… If you did proper planning to pay for college you should already know how much you can afford to allocate from your income and the assets you have saved as well as any borrowing you can take on, if absolutely necessary and it is within reason. If you also estimated your child’s aid eligibility at each of the colleges and universities she applied to, then you should have had a very good idea AHEAD OF TIME what your out-of-pocket cost should be and if you could cover that cost with the income and assets you’ve earmarked for college.
If you did this planning ahead of time and now the aid award is less than you expected, here is what you should do:" …