Articles / Applying to College / Understanding Financial Aid Budget Worksheets

Understanding Financial Aid Budget Worksheets

Written by Sally Rubenstone | Nov. 25, 2002

Question: I'm really having a hard time understanding my financial aid papers. I noticed on my budget worksheet that certain amounts are calculated for room and board (I live off campus), personal expenses, dependent care, and transportation. How is this supposed to benefit me, and was it necessary to calculate this in my budget?

When a college prepares a budget sheet such as the one you describe, what they are really doing is showing you the figures on which they have based the amount of aid they are awarding you.

Typically, the aid that colleges give out to cover non-tuition expenses (such as your room and board, dependent care, transportation, etc) comes in the form of loans that must be repaid. Look over the itemized estimates on your budget sheet. Do you think the numbers are fairly accurate? If you feel that they are high, that could mean that you will require less loan than the college expects you to take out, so that could be good news for you.

If, however, you find the numbers are low in one or more areas, then you should contact the financial aid office at your college as soon as possible and explain your reasoning. Hopefully, they will adjust your aid to reflect the new figures you present, but you have to be prepared for the possibility that they will question them. For example, if the figures you cite for rent, childcare, etc. exceed the norms in your area, the college may be hesitant to up your aid to cover them (not necessarilyâ€"just want you to be ready to do battle, if need be!).

Thus, the budget worksheet â€œbenefitsâ€ you to the extent that it enables you to see the estimates that the financial aid folks used when they calculated your aid package. Sometimes such budget sheets can be helpful to students, too, because they provide a sense of typical costs in the categories listed. If the amounts you are paying are much greater, it could mean that the college miscalculated, but it could also mean youâ€™re getting a bum deal somewhere along the way and might want to check out better options.

Best wishes to you as you wade through the financial aid quagmire. It can sometimes seem like an education in itself, canâ€™t it?

Sally Rubenstone

Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents' Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student's Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student's Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC's Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential's "Ask the Dean" column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.