College Shopping Sheet

There is a collective 'scratching of heads' sound resonating from households all across the country. These households are filled with excited college bound students and anxious parents that are comparing and trying to make sense of the financial aid award letters that are arriving in the mail.

Award letters can be very difficult to decipher and there is no mandated format for colleges to present their packages to prospective students. That's why the Department of Education created the College Shopping Sheet. This sheet's format has been adopted by over 2,000 schools across the country. It is a generally accepted format for breaking down important cost components including the estimated cost of attendance, grants, scholarships, loans, and work study with a brief overview of other information including each school's graduation rate and the nationally averaged loan default rate.

Consider using the Shopping Sheet template for gathering financial information required for comparing the cost of schools and to ultimately assist in the final decision of where to attend.