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Each school can create its own format for award letters, since there is no mandatory standard. In 2012 the Education Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created a recommended version, but most colleges don’t use it. Imagine trying to compare boxes of macaroni at the supermarket if more than half the manufacturers designed their own nutrition labels.

Take the letters in the study that included Pell grants. Of the 515 colleges that awarded them via nonstandard letters, more than a third provided no information about how much attending school would cost. The letters highlighted grants and scholarships as a way of convincing students to enroll, but without listing tuition or explaining how much money students would owe.

Temple University sent one low-income student a letter saying it was pleased to offer a combination of grants and loans totaling $25,909 for freshman year. The letter failed to mention that Temple costs $33,048 a year to attend, including tuition, room, board and living expenses. A student could easily enroll, show up in the fall, and only then figure out the $7,000 shortfall.

The letters that did disclose costs were inconsistent. Some listed only tuition. Others included room and board. Others added books and estimated living expenses. The recommended letter includes all of the above, providing a total “cost of attendance.”

Seventy percent of colleges with nonstandard award letters created further confusion by lumping together grants and loans, as if both were freebies. Northern Arizona University sent one low-income student an award letter that said “Total Financial Aid Offer: $30,890.” This amount was also the annual cost of attending, so the letter subtracted one from the other and concluded: “Total Unmet Need: $0.”

That sounds a like a free ride, but $25,075 of the aid came from loans—mostly federal debt that the student’s parents would have to take out, contingent on a credit check, at 6.31% interest plus an origination fee. The University of Arizona did something similar. It told a student the cost of attendance was $48,200 a year, then subtracted $5,815 in grants, $5,500 in work-study opportunities, and $36,885 in loans. “Net Costs After All Aid” were “$0.00.”

Talk about deceptive. Say you buy a car with a $25,000 sticker price. The dealer gives you a $2,000 manufacturer’s rebate and a loan for the rest. Was the “net cost” $0.00? The recommended award letter solves this problem. It subtracts any grants and scholarships from the cost of attendance to calculate the “net cost.” Only then does it add in loans.