Re: college costs

[Robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

 > From: ", Flora" <http://www.state.vt.us/~Flora.>
 > Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 21:03:24 +0000
 >
 > The $51,000 includes grants and scholarships. Would you like me to send you the 
 > spreadsheet that I created? This includes all estimated costs that the colleges 
 > gave us minus the grants and scholarships. This gives us what we pay with 
 > savings, loans, and monthly payments.

Yeah, that would be useful.

However, I would like to understand something, still.

It seems like there are 2 paths:

 1) You pay for everything.  In that case, you get grants and loans, and
    then the remainder is paid by you.  That's straightforward.
 2) You get help from family members.  In that case, you get less in grants
    and loans, and the remainder is paid by you and the family members.

Am I correct in my analysis?

If it is correct, does #2 have a lower and upper bound?  It would be ideal
to see a graph based on different scenarios with varying contribution
amounts versus the total amount paid for college.

It seems like there would be tools to do this for you, right?