Congratulations on getting into college! But now you’re trying to evaluate your financial aid award, right? In order to know how good (or bad) it is, you need to consider a few things:

• The cost of the college (called the cost of attendance or student budget).  This encompasses all costs for one year of college and includes tuition and fees, room and board, books, transportation, and other expenses.

• Your EFC (Expected Family Contribution).  This is the minimal amount you will be expected to pay out-of-pocket for a year of college as calculated by the FAFSA and/or the CSS Profile.

• Demonstrated need. This is the amount of aid for which you are eligible. It is based on the cost of college and your EFC. The formula goes like this: [Cost of college] – [EFC] = [Demonstrated need].

• The amount of aid offered by the college.  Add up all the aid in your financial aid award from the college.  Do not include any parent PLUS loans which are not need-based aid (in other words, almost anyone can get a PLUS loan).  See if the aid given by the college adds up to the total demonstrated need.  If not, you have unmet need.  That is, the college did not award you enough aid to satisfy your entire demonstrated need.  In short, you would need to contribute more than just your EFC in order to pay for this particular college. Parent PLUS loans and private student loans are good options in this scenario.

• The kinds of aid in your award.  There are two categories of financial aid:

1. Free money, which are grants and scholarships that don’t have to be paid back
2. Self-help aid, which are loans and/or federal work-study where the student either has to pay back the money or has to work for it.

You want to try for a financial aid award that has some balance between self-help aid and free money.  As a general rule, a small demonstrated need is usually met with mostly if not all self-help aid.  Larger demonstrated need tends to have a better balance simply because there is not enough self-help aid (federal loans and work-study) available in the financial aid system.  If the award, particularly a large one, seems too skewed on the side of self-help aid, then you may want to discuss this with the financial aid administrator at the college.

If any of the above pieces of information listed above are missing or unclear from your award letter, you should contact the college immediately and request that it be supplied. For incoming college freshmen, you should understand that assuming your family’s financial situation doesn’t change dramatically in the next few years, the offer for your freshman year is likely to establish a template for all four years.  That is why this initial award merits your special attention.

A note of caution and advice: When dealing with your financial aid administrator, you should be mindful of their world.  On one hand, financial aid administrators have been given limited funds to work with, and on the other hand, more families are asking for more support.  The administrators are caught in between and what makes it so difficult is that there is simply not enough money in the system to satisfy everyone.  So the best advice we can give you is to be patient and be civil in your interactions with your financial aid administrator.  Try to establish a collegial, working relationship with that person and if they respond to your wishes, you should ALWAYS send them a “thank you” note.  No matter what, when working with any financial aid administrator, leave the testosterone at the door.  Never, ever pick a fight with them because you will lose.

Need help evaluating and improving your financial aid award? Use SimpleTuition’s TuitionCoach tool called “Evaluate and Improve Financial Aid Awards”.  This tool will instantly evaluate your financial aid award and provide you with useful advice on ways to work with your college financial aid office to improve it. Also, check out our Complete Guide to a Better Financial Aid Offer.