MapTheCost.

How it works

Eight steps, March to September. Software does the reading and the math. People check anything the software is not sure of. You make every decision and click every send.

  1. You upload the letters. A phone photo or a PDF of every award letter your student received. Any college, any layout.
  2. We read each line. Each number is pulled out with a confidence score and the exact text it came from. Anything under our confidence bar goes to a person before you see it. Why we show you the source line.
  3. We say what each line is. Gift, loan, or job. Colleges use more than a hundred names for one federal loan. We use three words.
  4. We fill in what the letter left out. Books, travel, personal costs, a scholarship that ends after year one, the Parent PLUS cap ($20,000 a year, $65,000 per student from July 2026). Estimates carry a range, never false precision.
  5. You see the real price, side by side. One row per college: sticker price, gifts, what you pay, what you would borrow, the monthly payment after graduation, four years out.
  6. We help you ask for more. We score which colleges tend to add money and why. We draft the appeal in your words, with your documents listed. You read it, change it, and send it from your own email. Nothing leaves without your yes.
  7. You plan the borrowing. Federal student limits first, then what is left, then what that costs each month. No lender names, no offers, no links. Just the numbers.
  8. We follow through. Deposit deadline, housing, verification paperwork, loan counseling, the first bill. One reminder at a time until the first day of class.

What stays human

See the reviewer's screen on a made-up letter.

What we will not do