<p>On the college board page of a school, UPenn for example, it says "$41,713 average financial aid package." Is that the average amount that each family PAYS or is it the average amount being SUBTRACTED from the overall cost of attendance? I am guessing it is the latter, but just want to be sure. Thank you! </p>
<p>You are interpreting it correctly. However, the averages don’t do much in telling you what aid you may get. Each family’s financial situation is different. To get the best estimate of what you may get, run the net price calculator on each college’s finaid web pages.</p>
<p>That stat tells you NOTHING.</p>
<p>They have students who receive NOTHING. They have some students who receive a little. They have some who receive a LOT. </p>
<p>@annoyingdad Thank you! Yeah, I know it differs and I have been looking at the median aid chart for different income brackets. Can you shed any light on how accurate the net price calculator? I am the oldest in my family so we have no prior experience with financial aid and I have heard that colleges sometimes skew the calulator to make it more appealing than the actual package. </p>
<p>If your family only has W-2 wages, maybe some interest and/or dividends etc., it should be very accurate. They are less accurate with self-employment, owning a business, owning rental properties and the like. </p>
<p>Some schools include loans as part of financial aid, which is misleading. If $20K is federal loans and Parent Plus loans, for example, that means that you and your family might be paying a lot more than you think. That’s why the NPC is so much more valuable than the average aid figures.</p>
<p>I think it’s wrong for them to include Parent Plus loan as part of an ‘average aid’. Parent Plus loans can be taken up to the cost of attendance and they aren’t even on particularly generous terms. How is it “aid”??</p>
<p>I am not sure they would include ParentPlus loan in their financial aid statistics, however, I do see schools including them on the financial aid package.</p>
<p>As a note…parent plus loans are not student financial aid…those are in the parent name only.</p>
<p>It is under the parent’s name, but UIUC include it in the estimated financial aid package anyway.</p>