To calculate the college financial aid amount for each school, it is important to calculate Student Aid Index (SAI) amount that is calculated by the income and assets of both student and parents for the previous year, and the difference between a college’s yearly cost of attendance (COA) and SAI is the financial need amount which is the maximum possible targeted financial aid amount to be calculated according to each college’s financial aid grid. Each college may apply their financial aid formula based on the different SAI calculated methods: by Federal Methodology (FM) or by Institutional Methodology (IM). Then, each college applies their own financial aid percentage to the financial need amounts. And, the college’s financial aid award amounts are consisted of various gifted aids such as grants and/or scholarships from federal, state or school sources, etc. with self-help portions such as various student loans, work-study program, parent loans, etc.