The hard part is over! Your child was admitted to college. Now comes the “paying for it” part. We totally get it. Paying for college is a huge investment and one that should be taken with great care. There are all sorts of loans and grants and work study opportunities and a whole host of other kinds of financial aid. It’s hard to keep track of them all, let alone understand what each school’s financial aid award really means since they all look different.

Parents and families of admitted students ask a lot of questions about financial aid, as they should. It’s complicated, and I’d be skeptical if you told me that you didn’t find it confusing at least at some point in the whole process. There are the standard questions that families tend to ask, like these, and they’re good ones. I mean, we wouldn’t put it on our website if they weren’t, right?

But let’s go a little deeper. Parents, let’s get real for a moment.