Project education expenses and funding gaps before enrollment decisions.
College cost planning needs multi-year visibility, not first-year tuition alone.
This calculator estimates full program expense including inflation assumptions.
It can compare institutions, locations, and scholarship impacts.
Early planning improves savings and borrowing decisions for families.
Use current annual tuition estimate.
Include housing, books, and other annual expenses.
Use expected annual education inflation.
Select number of academic years.
Review projected cumulative expense.
Year t Cost = Base Cost × (1+g)^t; Total = sum of yearly costs
Each year cost is inflated, then all years are summed for total program estimate.
Inflate each year and sum total.
Total exceeds simple 4 × first-year estimate.
Run both full projections with same inflation assumption.
Cost delta can be substantial over full program.
Subtract aid from each year before summing.
Funding gap reduces meaningfully with recurring aid.