Education

Paying for school involves a vocabulary of its own — capitalized interest, cost of attendance, origination fees — before you even get to the actual decision. These three calculators use official pricing and federal loan data, and the terms below explain what the financial aid letters assume you already understand.

Education calculators

College vs Bootcamp/Trade School

See which path builds more estimated real-terms value, using College Board tuition data and Course Report bootcamp outcomes.

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In-State vs Out-of-State Tuition (US)

See the estimated cost gap, including financing, using College Board pricing data and federal loan rates.

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Student Loan vs 529 Savings (US)

See the estimated cost gap between borrowing for college and saving ahead, using federal loan and tax deduction data.

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Key terms

The vocabulary that comes up across education decisions — this site is built to help you see the fuller picture, not just crunch numbers.

Cost of attendance (COA): The full sticker price of a year of school — tuition, fees, housing, and more.
Capitalized interest: Unpaid loan interest that gets folded into your principal, so it starts earning interest too.
Future value: What money is worth later, after growing at an assumed investment return.
FAFSA: The Free Application for Federal Student Aid — determines your eligibility for grants, loans, and work-study.
Subsidized vs unsubsidized loan: Subsidized loans don't accrue interest while you're in school; unsubsidized loans do, from day one.
Grace period: The months after graduation before student loan repayment begins, typically six months.
Income-driven repayment: Federal loan repayment plans that cap your monthly payment based on your income, not the loan balance.
Merit aid: Scholarship money awarded for academic, athletic, or other achievement, not financial need.
Tuition reciprocity: Regional agreements (like WUE) that let some out-of-state students pay reduced rates.
529 plan: A tax-advantaged account for education savings — investment growth is tax-free if used for school.
Origination fee: A fee subtracted from your loan the moment it's disbursed, before you see the money.