Career & Growth · Free tool

College Affordability Calculator

Can you afford this college? Annual gap, 4-year debt projection, post-grad monthly payment vs entry salary.

Updated April 2026

Annual cost of attendance ($)

Family contribution + loans ($/yr)

Scholarships/grants ($/yr)

Years at school

Expected entry-level salary ($/yr)

AffordabilityStretch

Annual funding gap

$12,000

4-year total gap

$48,000

Monthly loan payment (10-yr @ 6%)

$533

Total repaid over 10 years

$63,948

Payment consumes 11.6% of entry-level monthly salary. Keep below 10% for comfort’s sake.

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What it does

Sticker price × 4 years — minus aid — equals loan debt. And that post-grad payment eats 15-45% of an entry-level salary. Run the numbers before committing.

Runs entirely in your browser — no upload, no account, no watermark. For more tools in this category see the full tools index.

Embed this tool on your siteShow snippet

Paste this snippet into any page. Loads on-demand (lazy), no tracking scripts, and sized to most dashboards. Replace the height to fit your layout.

<iframe src="https://freetoolarena.com/embed/college-affordability-calculator" width="100%" height="720" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" title="College Affordability Calculator" style="border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:12px;max-width:720px;"></iframe>

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How to use it

Enter cost + contribution.
Enter scholarships.
Read affordability tier.