<p>I’m trying to analyze these two, but it’s not making much sense to me.
Can anyone please help?
Thank you in advance!</p>
<p>Financial Aid:
[View</a> image: financialaid](<a href=“http://postimage.org/image/c7bhzkw43/]View”>http://postimage.org/image/c7bhzkw43/)</p>
<p>Until the amounts are confirmed, you can’t really compare. Which grants are guaranteed? Those would stay the same for each option. If you qualify for PELL in one scenario, then you also qualify for PELL in the other. SEOG is offered in the first scenario too which is pure grant. You need to find out what the COAs are in both scenarios and them subtract out all GRANTS from each school and then you are left with the net cost that you will have to pay.</p>
<p>If they are both state schools and cost about the same, it seems to me that you would get Cal grants that are the same from each school, so where the differential would come, would be in how much each school is scraping up from their own funds, and the SEOG .</p>
<p>I believe all the grants are guaranteed.
However, I’m not entirely sure.</p>
<p>For option #1, the net cost is $8900.
For option #2, the net cost is $9300.</p>
<p>What I’m worried about are the loans because I don’t want to be in a lot of debt.
In your opinion, with these given circumstances, which one is better?</p>
<p>Thank you for your assistance so far!
:)</p>
<p>IS that the net cost without the loans offsetting any of it? Loans are not discounts. They just defer your commitment for a price. A school that has a net cost of $1K after taking out $10K in loans is more expensive than the one that costs $5K with no loans. You can take out the loans after the fact so when you compare do not offset costs with offered loans.</p>
<p>But it seems to me that the costs are very comparable. When they are within a $1000 or so, look at other factors and ignore that cost differential. Next year the less expensive option can raise their prices more or there can be factors that make that cost equivalent that are not in the base prices.</p>
<p>Try again with this calculator: [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid) and see if the results are easier to understand.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse: The net cost is the COA subtracting just the loans and work study.
Thank you for the tips and insight!</p>
<p>@happymomof1: Thank you for the calculator! This will come in handy.</p>