For counselors & educators
Financial aid season, prepped for you.
Classroom-ready presentations, printable family handouts, and free calculators your students can use without an account. Built on federal data, current for the new 2026 loan rules, and always free for schools.
- Every tool works without an account
- We never sell student data
- Materials free to print & share with families
The Counselor Toolkit
Everything for FAFSA Night and beyond, in one folder.
- FAFSA Night deck, present-as-is with speaker notes
- 3 one-page family handouts: SAI, award letters, the 2026 loan changes
- The counselor's Aug–Jul financial aid calendar
We'll email the download link plus occasional counselor updates (deadline alerts, new resources). Unsubscribe anytime. Your students can use every tool without an account — signing up is optional and simply adds a personal dashboard.
- Expert-written articles, audited monthly for accuracy
- 520+
- Expert-written articles, audited monthly for accuracy
- Free tools and calculators, no login required
- 16
- Free tools and calculators, no login required
- State financial aid guides, organized for caseload use
- 50
- State financial aid guides, organized for caseload use
- Federal-source data: IPEDS, PSEO, BLS, and state agencies
- 100%
- Federal-source data: IPEDS, PSEO, BLS, and state agencies
What's inside
Open the folder, walk into FAFSA Night ready
Every piece is classroom-ready: swap in your school's name, print, and go. Updated each cycle so you never present last year's rules.
FAFSA Night deck
12 slides with full speaker notes covering the 2027-28 form, the SAI, and the new borrowing caps.
PowerPoint
Your SAI, Explained
One page that finally makes the Student Aid Index make sense for families.
Printable PDF
Reading an Award Letter
Free vs. earned vs. borrowed money, net price, and four red flags to circle.
Printable PDF
What Changed in 2026
The OBBBA cheat sheet: Parent PLUS caps, Grad PLUS, and the new rates.
Printable PDF
The Aid Calendar
August to July, every deadline and touchpoint for your senior class.
Printable PDF
Use with students
Tools that work in a computer lab
No accounts, no student emails, nothing to install. Project them, or put a class on the same page in a lab period.
SAI Estimator
The exact 2026-27 federal formula. A student can estimate their number in about 5 minutes.
Worth-It Score lookup
One 0-100 score per school combining cost, graduation rate, and real earnings.
Borrowing Calculator
Turn “total loans” into the monthly payment at graduation. The reality check that lands.
Award Letter Decoder
Upload any aid offer; it separates free money from loans and computes net price.
Built for school settings: every tool works without an account, so a whole class can use them in a lab period. Students who want to save their plan can create a free account anytime — it's optional. And we never sell student data.
Know your state
State aid guides for all 50 states, built for caseloads
Priority deadlines, state grant programs, and who qualifies, in plain language you can forward to a family. Each guide is refreshed when state rules change.
For your school site
Put the SAI Estimator on your school's website
A copy-paste embed gives your families the calculator right on your counseling page, with "powered by CollegeLens" attribution. No maintenance on your end; it updates when the federal formula does.
Request the embed kitDistricts & programs
Working with a whole district or access program?
We partner with districts, college-access nonprofits, and state agencies on financial aid readiness.
- Co-branded toolkit and family materials
- Spanish-language FAFSA resources (coming this fall)
- Training session for counseling teams
Fair questions
What counselors ask us
Is this really free for schools?
Yes. CollegeLens is free for students, families, and educators. We're supported by clearly disclosed lender comparison partnerships, never by selling data, and our editorial content is independent of partners.
What about student privacy?
Every calculator and tool works without an account, so students can use them in class without giving us an email address. A free account is optional — it adds a personal dashboard for students who want to save their plan. Either way, we never sell student data, and our public privacy policy spells out how tool inputs are handled. The toolkit download asks for your email, not your students'.
Can I print and reuse the materials?
Please do. The toolkit is made for school use: print it, photocopy it, project it, and email it to your families. Swap in your school's name on the deck; the handouts are ready as-is.
Where does the data come from?
Federal and public sources: IPEDS, the Census Bureau's PSEO earnings data, BLS, and state aid agencies, with a published methodology for every score and calculator.