YOUR RESULTS

Total cost of your college education:

$0^*

Amount you will need to borrow:

$0^**

*Wondering how in the Shmoop we calculated this number? Easy: with a little compound interest equation. When you entered the tuition for your college (or we gave you our estimate), our engineers called that number n. Then they assigned the interest rate you selected to the variable i, and the # of years until you’ll enroll y, and plugged those numbers into the equation n * (1.0i)^y for each year you plan on being enrolled.

So if your tuition is $42,224, it’s 3 years until you start college, your inflation rate selected is 3%, and you plan to attend for 4 years, the cost will be...

$42,224 * (1.03)^3 for the first year = $46,139

$42,224 * (1.03)^4 for the second year $47,523

$42,224 * (1.03)^5 for the third year $48,949

$42,224 * (1.03)^6 for the fourth year $50,418

...for a delightful grand total of $193,029. Oof.

Then we add $9,000/year, $6,000/year, or $4,000/year for food (in units of pizza, based on the food cost estimates from this source).

For the grand finale, we add a little more dough for textbooks based on the estimates made by the College Board here, unless you selected "You need those for class?" If that was your choice, we're sorry to report that the joke is on you: we subtracted $10,000 from the estimated cost of your education because we simply don't expect you to graduate. Invest in some of those book things and try again, dude.

**This number is a little bit harder to explain. Here, we riffed on the College Board's expected family contribution calculator and other financial aid calculators (like this one). The basic facts are as follows: we subtract estimated taxes from your income and then attempt to account for living expenses. If this number is zero, you're in the clear. Shmoop's crystal ball thinks you may be able to pay for college on your own, or you'll get enough financial aid that you'll be good to go with little of your own dough.