<p>When my son went through the application process, he applied to, and was admitted to several institutions. A financial aid award letter from each institution was forwarded before the May 1st admissions acceptance deadline. I think I had them all by the beginning of April, or thereabouts. I didn’t use an estimator. I waited for the actual award letters. Once I had them all, I could make an informed decision as to which ones were financially in the finals of the admissions derby.</p>
<p>What you do need to do, which is a pain, is get your taxes done as early as possible. While they all say that you can provide them with “last year’s tax numbers”, they really need the latest year’s tax returns.</p>
<p>I was pleasantly surprised with some of the institution’s offers. UIUC wasn’t one of them, in terms of need-based financial aid. It was just a combination of both subsidized and unsubsidized federal and parent-plus loans, as were the other state institutions to which he applied except for Purdue, where he got the merit-based trustee’s scholarship.</p>