Different routes. A clearer cost picture.
Compare your college pathways.
A two-year college, a four-year degree, or a 2+2 transfer plan? Build two cost scenarios with your own quotes, then see what changes. Public or private is a choice to investigate—not a price or a promise.
Your cost comparison
Unused annual cash is not carried to later years in this model.
Enter only aid usable for these modeled costs. Verify award restrictions and conditions with the school; this model does not determine eligibility.
Different durations can lead to different credentials. A lower cost is not a recommendation or an equivalent education outcome. Funding gaps are unfunded costs—not loan eligibility, approved amounts, repayments or a recommendation to borrow.
Every year, in view
Scroll each table horizontally for the full breakdown. All amounts are nominal US dollars; columns are rounded for display only.
How to make this comparison useful
- Choose a route. A two-year scenario models two years only. Four-year models four. Transfer models two years in each stage; it does not assume acceptance or that credits will transfer.
- Get real quotes. Use each college's cost-of-attendance and net-price information. Enter housing and meals separately; if you only have a combined room-and-board quote, enter it under housing and set meals to 0. Include only incremental costs if that is your goal, consistently in both paths.
- Separate aid from borrowing. Confirmed aid means nonrepayable amounts you have verified for that year; check renewal requirements. Loans and unearned work-study are not grants. Do not subtract the same aid again from a tuition quote that already includes it.
- Stress-test the plan. Compare without hypothetical aid before relying on an unconfirmed scholarship. Annual cash available means cash you plan to contribute toward this student's costs, without double-counting aid.
Methodology and limits
For study year y, each annual cost equals its year-one-dollar quote × (1 + growth rate)y−1. All stages use the same price base: stage two quotes also start in year-one dollars and receive growth for years three and four. An entry expense is charged once, at the beginning of its stage, with the same growth factor.
Gross cost is tuition + fees + housing + meals + books/supplies + transport + that year's entry expense. Net cost subtracts confirmed aid, capped at gross cost. The alternate estimate subtracts additional hypothetical aid, capped at the remaining cost. Funding gap = max(0, net cost − annual cash available). Surplus cash does not carry forward. Aid and cash stay flat each year within a stage; cost growth affects expenses only. Excess aid is ignored, not treated as income.
Annual costs assume the same enrollment and living pattern throughout a stage. For varied yearly awards, delayed graduation, part-time enrollment, summer terms or a transfer taking longer than four years, use a separate detailed budget. No taxes, investment returns, lost earnings, loan fees, interest, repayment, borrowing limits or financial-aid eligibility calculations are included. This is educational scenario planning, not personalized financial advice.
Admissions are a separate question
SAT, ACT and GPA alone cannot establish acceptance, scholarship eligibility or transfer-credit outcomes. This tool does not collect those scores, child names or other identifiers, and does not predict admission. Confirm requirements and credit transfer directly with each institution.
Research before deciding
- U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard
- NCES College Navigator
- Federal Student Aid: evaluating aid offers
Methodology updated October 25, 2026. No school or provider endorses this tool. Inputs are processed locally, never added to the page URL, and are not saved. Export is a file you control.
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