Tool · Stacking Simulator
How Does Your Full Aid Package Stack Against Cost of Attendance?
Enter your school’s Cost of Attendance and add every aid source in your package. This tool stacks them, shows the total against the COA cap, and flags which sources get cut if you exceed it.
Most families look at each aid source individually. Institutional merit here, Pell Grant there, an outside scholarship, a loan. What they don’t see is how all of those sources interact when you stack them against a single Cost of Attendance cap. This tool lets you layer every aid source in your package, see the total against COA, and understand what happens when the stack exceeds the cap. Federal rules say total aid cannot exceed Cost of Attendance. When it does, something gets cut. Which source gets cut depends on the school’s stacking policy, and that’s where the money disappears for families who don’t run the numbers in advance. Enter your school’s COA and add each aid source. The tool shows you the stack, flags the overaward if one exists, and breaks down the math. The bar chart makes the gap or the overage immediately visible.
How overaward reduction works
The Cost of Attendance is the ceiling. It includes tuition, fees, room, board, books, transportation, and personal expenses as defined by the school. Federal regulations require that your total financial aid package, including grants, scholarships, loans, and work-study, cannot exceed this number.
When total aid exceeds COA, the school must reduce the package. The amount over the cap is the overaward. The school chooses which source to reduce first, and that choice is governed by the school’s stacking policy. At loan-first schools like Alabama and TCU, loans are reduced before grants. At grant-first schools, your institutional grant gets cut dollar-for-dollar. The simulator uses a standard reduction order (loans, work-study, outside scholarships, then grants), but your school may differ.
Why stacking order matters
A $5,000 outside scholarship at a loan-first school reduces your debt by $5,000. The same $5,000 at a grant-first school replaces $5,000 in free money you already had. The net financial impact is zero at the grant-first school and $5,000 at the loan-first school. That difference is invisible unless you run the stacking analysis.
This simulator gives you the visual picture. Add every source in your package, and you can see immediately whether adding another outside scholarship helps or just shuffles money around.
Frequently asked questions
What happens when total aid exceeds Cost of Attendance?
Federal regulations prohibit a student from receiving total financial aid that exceeds the school's published Cost of Attendance. When the combined package (grants, scholarships, loans, and work-study) goes over the COA cap, the school must reduce the package. The amount reduced is called the overaward. The school decides which source to cut first, and that decision is where families lose money if they haven't run the numbers in advance.
Which aid source gets cut first in an overaward?
It depends on the school's stacking policy. The most common approach is to reduce loans first, then work-study, then outside scholarships, then grants. This is the best-case scenario because you keep your free money and lose the debt. Some schools do the opposite and reduce institutional grants first, which means your outside scholarship effectively replaces money you already had. Ask the financial aid office in writing how they handle overawards at your specific school.
Does work-study count toward the COA cap?
Yes. Work-study is part of your total financial aid package and counts toward the Cost of Attendance cap. However, work-study is earned income that you receive through paychecks rather than a direct credit to your tuition bill. Some schools treat it differently in their stacking calculations because of this distinction. In this simulator, work-study is included in the total and is typically one of the first sources reduced in an overaward scenario.
Can I stack merit aid with need-based aid?
Yes, in most cases. Merit aid and need-based aid serve different purposes and are awarded through different processes. They stack together in your total package. The constraint is the COA cap: your combined merit, need-based, federal, state, and outside awards cannot exceed the Cost of Attendance. Some schools also have internal policies that reduce need-based aid when merit aid increases, so the net benefit of adding merit may be less than the headline amount.
This simulator gives you the math for one school at a time. A MeritPlaybook playbook runs the stacking analysis across every school on your list, identifies which outside scholarships are worth pursuing at each one, and flags the schools where additional awards will get displaced. Get a personalized playbook, or see a real sample. For the full breakdown on how stacking policies work, see our guide on merit aid stacking.