If you are a senior parent, it is crunch time.  Hopefully, all of the work your son or daughter has done between the spring of their junior year and now has paid off.  If you followed the steps that we have outlined, and viewed the seminars, you have put yourself in a position to make a final college choice from a list of affordable options.

To finalize this choice, however, you will need to analyze the official award letters from each of the colleges.  These award letters have or will be sent out over the next two months….most families will receive their award letters in March and April – prior to the May 1^st deadline date.

Although we cover this extensively in a seminar, I wanted to reinforce those points in this article.  The first aspect of analyzing each of the award letters is to obtain the 2010-2011 direct cost.  If your son or daughter is going to live off the college campus, at home, then the direct cost is the 2010-2011 yearly tuition and fee charge.  If the student is going to live on the college campus it is the yearly tuition and fees and room and board charge.  You must establish this figure before you can ascertain your out of pocket cost.

From that direct cost, subtract out any or all of these items that you see in the award letter:

A Pell Grant, An Academic Competitiveness Grant, A Supplemental Educational Grant, A State Grant, A College Grant, A College Scholarship, An Independent Scholarship, A Perkins Loan, A Subsidized Stafford or Direct Loan, an Unsubsidized Stafford or Direct Loan.

This then will allow you to determine your out of pocket (net) cost and allow you to compare that out of pocket cost at each college.

Do not subtract out a campus job.  Jobs are important and should be used for spending money but not to calculate and compare real out of pocket costs.  The student has to get to the campus, find employment, work, and get paid as they work.   Also, do not subtract out Plus – the Parent Loan to Undergraduate Students.  When you review my seminar on the 10 Loan options you will see PLUS, which you may use to manage your college cost, but do not view it as financial aid.  Do not subtract out supplemental or alternative loans or even college loans if offered.

If you follow these steps you will be able to determine if the final, official out of pocket cost of a college matches your personal affordability range.  In the next article we will review how to manage your college cost effectively once the final college decision is made