Compare your college offers and see which one really costs less

Why this matters

The U.S. Government Accountability Office looked at college aid offers and estimated that 91 percent of colleges do not include or understate the net price in them (GAO-23-104708, read October 13, 2026). The net price is what you actually pay. Most letters leave that math to you.

What you get

• Every offer side by side. Enter each award letter as it arrives. Six short questions per letter, with a note on where each number sits on the page.
• The real cost of each college. Cost of attendance minus grants and scholarships only, with loans and work-study shown apart.
• A plain sentence for each offer. What that college would cost your family a year, and how much of its "aid" is really loans or work-study.
• Which offer is lowest, and how much less it costs over four years than your most expensive one.
• A four-year view. If a grant is not confirmed to renew, it shows what four years could cost if the grant covers the first year only.
• Loan checks. Split the loans into subsidized, unsubsidized and Parent PLUS. It warns you when an offer lists more Parent PLUS than the federal limit of $20,000 a year per student, and shows how much parent debt an offer adds up to over four years.
• An appeal letter draft for each school, in plain words, to copy or print. Then mark when you sent it and what came back.
• Bring in schools you already added to the cost worksheet, so you do not type them twice.

What it looks like

Two offers for a sample family, not a real one. The private college's package is $14,500 bigger on paper.

Private college would cost your family about $30,800 a year. The letter may call it $42,000 in "aid", but only $27,500 of that is free money. The other $14,500 is loans or work-study.

That is how the Decision Pack starts its reading of the first offer. The flagship costs $19,400 less a year, even though its package looks smaller.

What stays free

You do not need the Decision Pack to read one letter. The free guide takes your first offer through the same six questions and gives you its sentence. The award letter guide shows how to do the math by hand. The Decision Pack is for when you have two or more offers and need to choose.

When you need it

When the offers arrive. Early decision offers can come in December, and most offers come by spring. You can buy it the day your second letter arrives.

How buying works

1. Click Buy the Decision Pack. You pay on a secure Stripe checkout page.
2. We email you an unlock code.
3. In the guide, open the menu, choose "Already paid? Enter your unlock code", and paste it.

The code works for every student on that device and runs to June 30 of the school year you buy it for, then ends. Keep the email so you can use the code on another device. If you upgrade to Family Pro or Household within 30 days, the email also has a code that takes the $49 off.

Your offers stay with you

You type the numbers in yourself, and they are saved on your device, not with us. There is no account. If you turn on sync, an encrypted copy goes only to your own Google Drive, and we cannot read it. For a purchase, we keep only what we need to take the payment, send your code and count the devices it is used on.

Is it right for you?

• Yes, if you have, or soon will have, two or more aid offers to compare.
• Family Pro may suit you better if your student is still applying. It includes the same offer tools plus essay coaching, the real cost of every college on your list, and the full deadline toolkit. Compare the plans.
• Not needed if you only have one offer. The free guide reads that one for you.