What is a Good SAI?

Your SAI is your Student Aid Index, a number that represents your family’s ability to pay for one year of college. We’re often asked, “What’s a good SAI?” We provide an answer in our short video. To calculate your SAI, use our SAI Calculator.

Transcript

Please note that this transcript was auto-generated. We apologize for any minor errors in spelling or grammar.


[00:00:00] Your SAI is your Student Aid Index. It's a dollar amount calculated based on the information that you report on the FAFSA, and it represents your family's financial strength and ability to pay for one year of college. You know, we're often asked, what's a good SAI? Well, colleges take your SAI and subtract it from their cost of attendance.


What's left is how much aid you're eligible to receive. So, in plain English, a low SAI is better because it means you're eligible to receive more financial aid from a college. What leads to a low SAI? Generally, the lower the family's income and assets, the lower the SAI will be. Now, the reverse is also true.


The higher a family's income is, the less aid they'll be eligible to receive. The key word here is eligible. The amount of financial aid you'll actually receive will be based on the college's financial aid budget and their own enrollment goals. Your financial aid will vary [00:01:00] from school to school, but your SAI will play a big role in each amount.


If you have any further questions, here's where you can find us.



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