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Compare two financial aid letters by real cost

  • For High school students
  • You practice Keeping the AI to your sources
  • Time about 5 minutes

About this exercise

You got two college financial aid letters and want to know what each really costs your family for one year. Count only grants and scholarships as reducing the cost, not loans or work-study, and use Riverton's revised letter. Get exactly 3 numbered lines in plain text, under 90 words: 1. Lakemont's net cost with the subtraction shown; 2. Riverton's net cost with the subtraction shown; 3. which costs less and by how much. No advice about which school to pick. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Trusting the letter's bottom line. The AI repeats Lakemont's "$12,000 after aid", which treats loans you repay as if they were free money. Try: Add: "Subtract only grants and scholarships. Loans and work-study don't count."
  • Missing the revised award. The AI uses the first Riverton numbers and misses the Nov 2 revision. Try: Add: "Use Riverton's revised $2,000 Access Grant."
  • No math shown. The AI gives net costs without the subtraction, so you can't check them. Try: Show it: "1. Lakemont: $58,000 - $38,000 grants = $20,000".
  • Getting a decision you didn't ask for. The AI weighs prestige, renewals and debt, and nudges you toward one school. Try: Add: "Line 3 only says which costs less and by how much. No advice."
  • Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 90 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Cap each part: "each line under 18 words."

What a strong prompt includes

  • Counts only free money
  • Uses the revised award
  • Shows the math
  • Sets the number of lines
  • Sets a word limit

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