<p>When you have all of your college acceptances and aid packages on the table, make a list of each college and what you will have to PAY to go there. Subtract out loans and work study amounts from your packages because you do have still PAY those amounts, some are not guaranteed, there is often interest involved which means you end up paying more than that. You want a bottom line, apples to apples comparison. It doesn’t matter what a school give you in the end, but how much you have to pay, and you likely have the same loan and work options at most schools. Some will list them out like SDU has which I believe is misleading as it does appear as though they are giving you something when they are not-a lot of it conditional, and entitlement. </p>
<p>Basically, what the SDU package says is that you have to pay about $39K to go there. How you get that $39K, they are saying your parents can apply for a Direct Loan, and that you are entitled to one to (basically at any school, by the way) and that you qualify for a work study job if you can find a job and work the hours. Remember, you get that Direct Loan (though if you don’t have need at a school the subsidy can be affected) for most any school, and you likely can work at any school. Your parents may or may not get the PLUS loan, and they can get towards the cost of any school if they qualify. NOthing special or specific to SDU in terms of most of those options. Just the $20K scholarship is, so you just reduce their total cost by that to get their bottom line cost.</p>