College loan corporations are companies that provide financial aid to college students. The corporations have their own websites on the Internet that list very detailed explanations of what the companies offer, from college-planning guidelines and loan programs, to access to their loan consultants.

One of the most common services offered on college loan corporations? websites is the so-called college loan calculator. However, there are also other independent companies or websites that focus generally on loans and budgeting strategies that offer this service as well.

Calculators

College loan calculators are basically a set of criteria aimed at computing and evaluating a specific category of college education financing. It aims to help students and parents analyze how much needs to be invested in education, how much financial aid they can take advantage of, how much the student will eventually earn after getting a college degree, and which repayment program will help the student save money in the long run. There are no general standards for what the criteria should be, as each company?s website has a different approach in its method of evaluation.

There are similarities, though, in general regarding how these calculators help users or clients to make their decisions.

College Cost Calculator

College cost is one of the more standard criterion found in calculators. This takes into consideration a lot of different inputs like annual college costs, college cost inflation rate, years of attendance, percent of costs you plan to cover from savings, and years before college. Basically, this calculator helps parents and students analyze how much they have to save and pay for college and whether or not the student shoulder on his/her own finances.

Savings Calculator

Savings calculators help students and parents determine if they are on the right track regarding how they budget and save money for college. This calculator takes into consideration the following: years until college, family?s current savings for college, expected annual interest earnings, and monthly savings for college.

Others

Other calculators include student loan calculator, parent debt calculator, and parent loan repayment calculator. Student loan calculators compute how much students would have to pay monthly or annually after they graduate. Parent debt calculators basically analyze parents? capacity to take on more debt to finance their child?s education. Lastly, a parent loan repayment calculator computes how much of the loan parents have to repay monthly or annually.