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In three minutes you can do a lot of things: you could run a block and a half chasing after your cat, you could do a very thorough job brushing your teeth, you could scroll through Instagram and have your time magically disappear. Or you could use a quick calculator to get an estimate of how much it will cost for you to come to Tufts!

Tufts uses the MyinTuition college cost calculator, which can give you a low, best, and high estimate of what your potential financial aid package could look like. We love it, and so do many other similar colleges, because it can so easily illuminate the potential for financial aid and it can help you feel confident in your decision to apply to Tufts. We meet 100% of the demonstrated need of our admitted students, and we want you to know what that could look like for you.

When you use the calculator, you’re going to be asked six questions about your family’s finances. You’ll need to know your family’s annual income in 2018, their home value and debt (if they own a home), the amounts in checking and savings accounts, the approximate amount in retirement savings, and the amount in non-retirement investment accounts (ex. stocks, bonds, rental properties, 529 plans). It is very helpful to sit down with a parent to do this, both because they probably know the answers and because then you can talk about the results together. We especially encourage all students who are applying Early Decision and also applying for financial aid to use the calculator.

Once you’re done with the calculator, you’ll have an estimate of your financial aid award if you’re admitted to Tufts. This is just an estimate, not a guarantee of aid, and we hope that with this information you’ll feel you have the financial aid information you need to feel excited about getting your admissions application done for the November 1 ED1 deadline or the January 1 ED2 and Regular Decision deadlines.

Lastly, remember to complete your financial aid applications (FAFSA, CSS Profile, and IDOC) by the appropriate deadline. Those will certainly take longer than three minutes, and though only a financial aid professional might enjoy filling out those forms, we’re excited to get your applications and award financial aid to all of our eligible applicants.  

Please note: The MyinTuition calculator works very well for families where both parents live together and earn a wage from an employer. It works less well for families where a parent is self-employed or for students whose parents are separated or divorced. If your parents are separated or divorced, you will need to complete the calculator twice, once for each parent’s household. Add both of the parent and student contributions together then subtract that number from the total annual cost to get a general idea of what your total amount of need-based aid (grant, work study, and loans) could look like. The calculator does not work for international students.