💰 Financial Need Calculator
Subtract your Expected Family Contribution from a school's cost of attendance, then take away other aid, to estimate your demonstrated need and the remaining gap to fund.
💰 See Your Funding Gap
What is a Financial Need Calculator?
It puts the need-based aid formula in your hands. Demonstrated need is simply what a school costs minus what your family is expected to contribute — and remaining need is what's left once the grants and scholarships you've already won are applied. Seeing those two numbers side by side turns an intimidating process into a clear target: this is the gap you still have to close.
Use it to compare how affordable different schools really are, to gauge how much more scholarship money you should chase, and to plan for the balance with savings, work, or loans. The results are planning estimates — verify with the financial-aid office and your FAFSA/CSS results.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How does the financial need calculator work?
It applies the standard need-based aid formula: demonstrated need is a school's cost of attendance minus your Expected Family Contribution (now called the Student Aid Index). It then subtracts any other grants and scholarships you've already been awarded to show your remaining need — the gap you still have to cover with more aid, work, savings, or loans. Both figures are floored at zero.
What is the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) or Student Aid Index (SAI)?
It's the number a financial-aid formula says your family can contribute toward one year of college, based on income, assets, family size, and the number of students in college. Filing the FAFSA generates it (the CSS Profile produces a similar figure for some schools). A lower EFC/SAI means greater demonstrated need — it is not a bill, but a benchmark aid offices use.
What counts as cost of attendance?
Cost of attendance is a school's total published annual cost — tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, transportation, and personal expenses. It's usually higher than tuition alone, and using the full figure (not just tuition) gives a truer picture of your need. Each school publishes its own cost of attendance.
Is this an official financial aid determination?
No — it's a planning estimate. Schools calculate cost of attendance and EFC/SAI with their own methodologies, and your actual aid package depends on the funds each institution has available. Use your FAFSA/CSS results and each school's financial-aid office for binding figures.