<p>Hello. I was accepted to Johns Hopkins (Go Bluejays!) and I am now reviewing the financial aid award that the school has given me. On the financial aid page, there are three major columns: "Budget category" (shows breakdown of COA), "Resources" (student contribution, parent contribution), and "Fund" (list of grants and loans). Is the "fund" amount subtracted from the student/parent contributions to calculate how much I will need to pay, or does the "student/parent contributions" already reflect the funds that the school is providing?</p>
<p>Does the resource column plus the fund column equal the COA? If so, then you and your parents need to come up with the $$ in the Resource column and I’m guessing the loans in the Fund column include YOUR federal direct loans…but maybe more detail would help comments. </p>
<p>No, resource plus fund is $46,000. The breakdown of the “Budget” column is tuition, matriculation, room, board, personal expenses, books, travel, loans ($27) for a total of $65,356. “Resources” (parent/student contribution) is about $26,000. “Fund” (JHU grant, Federal direct loan, and FWS/Acad yr/on campus/UG) is about $20,000.</p>
<p>The way I tell people to interpret an aid award is this: Add up the tuition, fees, room, and board costs. Subtract the grants and scholarships. Anything else is what you have to pay. Your Federal Direct Loan will help you pay some of the costs. FWS is earned from work, so while it’s nice to have, you can’t figure it in when determining if you can pay (you have to get a job, and you don’t know if you’ll be able to work enough to earn the whole amount - so consider it as icing on the cake - a way to earn spending money). If you/your parents have enough money to cover the costs not covered by grants, scholarships, and your guaranteed federal loans, you are good. Otherwise, it may not be affordable.</p>
<p>Thank you for your advice, momofthreeboys and kelsmom. I looked under a different tab and found an explanation of the terminology.</p>