Scholarship Savings

Free Scholarship Savings calculator with clear step-by-step results.

About Scholarship Savings

A scholarship is worth more than its face value because every dollar awarded is a dollar not borrowed at interest. Compounding the award over the loan term you avoid shows the true benefit, which for a long repayment period can approach double the headline amount.

Formulas

Total awarded

Awarded = scholarship per year x years + other grants

Interest avoided

Interest = awarded x ((1 + rate)^loan term - 1)

Worked example

With the default values below, Scholarship Savings returns Total benefit including interest avoided of $37,607.80. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Total course costminimum 0 $: 48,000 $
Scholarship award per yearminimum 0 $: 6,000 $
Years the scholarship runsaccepts 1–10: 3
Other grants and bursariesminimum 0 $: 3,000 $
Interest rate on the loan avoidedaccepts 0–20 %: 6 %
Loan term avoidedaccepts 1–30: 10

Results

Total benefit including interest avoided: $37,607.80
Total awarded: $21,000.00
Loan interest avoided: $16,607.80
Share of course cost covered: 43.8% %

Step by step

1Values used
2Total awarded
3Interest avoided
4Total benefit including interest avoided= $37,607.80
5Total awarded= $21,000.00
6Loan interest avoided= $16,607.80
7Share of course cost covered= 43.8 %

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 6 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation or tax into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the interest calculation realistic?

It assumes the award would otherwise have been borrowed and left to accrue for the full term. Repaying earlier reduces the benefit, so treat it as an upper bound.

Are scholarships taxable?

Often not when applied to tuition and required fees, but amounts covering living costs can be taxable in some jurisdictions. Check local rules.