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Scholarship Savings Calculator

See whether your college fund is on track. Enter your savings, monthly deposits, a return, the future cost of attendance and how much you expect from scholarships, then press Calculate to find the funding gap.

Written by TopicDrill Editorial Team·Updated June 2026

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Your inputs

Fill in the details, then press Calculate.

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Remaining shortfall

$79,346

42% of net cost covered by savings

Projected savings$58,261
Scholarship cover$58,974
Remaining shortfall$79,346

Full inflated cost of attendance: $196,581

Savings versus the bill

Savings Deposited Net cost
$0$34.4k$68.8k$103.2k$137.6k0 yr5 yr10 yr

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How the scholarship savings calculator works

The tool runs two timelines at once. On one side it compounds your current balance and monthly deposits up to the year your child starts college. On the other it takes today's cost of attendance and inflates it forward, year by year, across the whole degree. The difference between what you will have saved and what the inflated bill demands, after the slice you expect scholarships and grants to cover, is the shortfall you need a plan for.

The chart makes the race visible. The shaded area is your savings climbing over time, the dashed grey line is the cash you actually deposited, and the red line marks the net cost your savings are trying to reach. When the savings line clears the red line, the plan is fully funded.

A worked example

Suppose you have 5,000 dollars saved, add 300 dollars a month at a 6 percent return, and college is 10 years away. Today's cost is 28,000 dollars a year, rising 5 percent annually, for a four-year degree, and you expect scholarships to cover 30 percent. The full inflated bill lands near 200,000 dollars, scholarships trim it to roughly 140,000 dollars net, and your fund grows to about 60,000 dollars, leaving a clear gap to close with extra deposits, work-study or loans.

Things to keep in mind

Funded does not mean finished. Aid packages can shift, returns are never guaranteed, and a gap year or graduate school changes everything. Before you lean on any one number, compare real prices using the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard. To stress-test the return side on its own, try our future value calculator.

Frequently asked questions

How does this calculator decide if I am on track?

It grows your current balance and monthly deposits to the year college begins, then inflates today's annual cost across every year of study to get the full bill. After subtracting the share you expect from scholarships and grants, whatever your savings cannot cover is shown as the shortfall.

Should I really count on scholarship money in advance?

Treat the scholarship percentage as a planning estimate, not a guarantee. Most awards are decided in the senior year and many renew only if grades hold. A safer approach is to model a lower scholarship share, fund the larger shortfall, and treat any extra award as a bonus that frees up cash later.

Why does the cost keep rising even while my child is enrolled?

College prices have historically climbed faster than general inflation, and they do not freeze on the first day of class. The tool inflates each year of attendance separately, so the senior-year bill is larger than the freshman-year bill, which is why the total cost looks higher than four times today's price.

What return rate should I assume on the savings?

It depends on how far away college is and how much risk you can take. A horizon of ten years or more can support a higher assumed return because there is time to ride out market swings, while money needed within a couple of years usually belongs somewhere safer with a low single-digit return.

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