Tuition, fees, room, board, books and travel — the school's full published figure for one year, not tuition alone.学费、杂费、住宿、伙食、书本与交通 —— 学校公布的一年全部费用，不只是学费。
A student's dollars are assessed far harder than a parent's — which is why who holds an asset matters as much as how much of it there is. The cap applies only at a private school.学生名下的钱被计入的比例远高于家长 —— 所以资产由谁持有，和资产有多少同样重要。上限仅在私立学校适用。
EFC =
I×20% +
A×6% +
i×50% +
a×20%
Financial aid = Cost of attendance − EFC
Every dollar sitting in the college pool costs you its assessment rate, each year the school looks. Move it to a pool that is never counted and that cost goes to zero. Because the rates differ by owner, the same dollar is worth very different amounts:放在计入池里的每一块钱，学校每审核一年就按其比例计入一次。把它挪到永不计入的池子，这个成本就归零。由于不同持有人的比例不同，同样一块钱的代价相差很大：
A 529 is the case where ownership does the work on its own: it is normally reported as the account owner's asset, so a parent-owned plan is assessed at the parent rate rather than the student's — the same balance, several times cheaper. Confirm the treatment against the formula your schools use.529 是“持有人本身就决定结果”的典型：它通常按账户持有人的资产申报，所以家长名下的计划按家长比例计入，而非学生比例 —— 同样的余额，代价低好几倍。请按您目标学校采用的公式确认处理方式。
Income is the harder one — I and i are assessed at the highest rates of all, and unlike assets you cannot simply move them. That is why the planning has to happen before the year the formula looks at, not after.收入更难处理 —— I 与 i 的计入比例最高，而且不像资产那样可以挪动。所以规划必须在公式审核的那一年之前完成，而不是之后。
One year at one school. Which assets fall on which side is not universal, so set the categories, rates and cap to match the formula your schools actually use. Aid is floored at zero: when EFC exceeds the cost of attendance there is no need-based award, and a larger EFC does not create a bill beyond the cost.这是单一学校、单一学年的测算。哪些资产落在哪一侧并无统一标准，请按您目标学校实际采用的公式设定分类、比例与上限。助学金以零为下限：当家庭预期供款超过就读总成本时，就不产生需求型助学金，而更高的供款也不会让账单超过总成本。