NEW YORK -- It's panic time in many American homes as parents struggle to evaluate the financial aid packages for their soon-to-be college freshmen children -- and figure out what to do if they don't get enough.

This rite of spring is triggered when colleges and universities begin mailing financial aid award letters, which give incoming students a breakdown of the amount of grants, scholarships, work-study jobs and federal loans they can expect.

Tips from the experts

Here are some tips from experts on evaluating financial-aid offers. Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of  FinAid.org in Pittsburgh: Look at your net cost, which is the total cost of attending an institution minus the total financial aid package; this is the amount the family has to finance If there are significant differences from college to college, it could be that one school had financial information that another didn't. Call and ask; perhaps you'll qualify for a review Take a hatchet to the family budget, cutting out anything that's unnecessary, but don't sacrifice retirement account funding Shop around for loans because rates and discounts can vary Consider deferring admission for a year so the child can work -- though this should be a last resort  Martha Holler, a spokeswoman for Sallie Mae, an educational lender based in Reston, Va.: Know the deadlines; you don't want to miss out on a generous offer by missing the deadline Determine if grants can be renewed in future years if the student maintains a certain grade point average, pursues a certain major or plays a sport If your financial circumstances have changed, appeal for a review of the aid package Ask for a list of recommended lenders; using them can make loan payouts easier Find out if the school offers a tuition plan that spreads payments out over the school year Look for scholarships, some of which are "last dollar" awards made late in the financial aid cycle

Comparing the various offers -- and appealing for reviews from campus aid offices -- can be daunting, as is figuring out how to finance the remainder. But most families work things out, experts say.

"What you'll find is that it's the moment of truth," said Martha Holler, spokeswoman for Sallie Mae, an educational lender based in Reston, Va. "You made it through the admissions process, and your child was accepted. Now you and your child are going to have to figure out how to pay for it."

Allan Turgeon, of Auburn, Maine, has dealt with financial aid award letters over the past several years as his sons, Tyler, 21, and Ryan, 19, have been making their way through Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.

He said Tyler, a junior, and Ryan, a sophomore, both qualified for some grants as well as work-study opportunities.

"The financial aid is essential to their attending the school," their father said.

But Mr. Turgeon, a property manager for a development company, said the family also anticipated having to pay a share of tuition, fee and room-and-board costs and tried to divide it in a way that was fair to everyone. Each son, he said, "borrows one-third of what he needs" beyond the college's financial aid. Mr. Turgeon then pays a third in cash and borrows the remaining third.

The family has found that the federal loan programs -- which include Perkins and Stafford loans for students as well as Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students, or PLUS loans, for parents -- have been the most economical way to borrow. But it's still not easy.

"We're on a bare-bones budget," Mr. Turgeon said. "We really have to watch how we spend our money."

Steve Joyce, director of student aid at Bowdoin, which will admit 480 new freshmen this fall, said parents needed to verify what's included in colleges' projected costs to ensure they have comparable figures. Some institutions, for example, may include book expenses and activity fees, while others may not.

In addition, he said, families also should be clear on whether some components of the aid offer are for one year only or will be renewed in coming years.

Mr. Joyce also urged parents and prospective students to call college and university financial-aid officers for advice.

"Call the school and say, 'I really want to come but I don't have the $15,000 you think I can afford to pay,'" Mr. Joyce said. "That start's a dialogue ... that could lead to a review of the calculations."

He said aid officers can help families develop payment strategies, too. "It doesn't hurt to ask, 'If you were in my position, how would you do this?' " Mr. Joyce said. "Financial-aid people spend a lot of time helping students and parents."

He recommends three Web sites where families can look for scholarships and other financial-aid information: www.finaid.org, www.collegeboard.com and www.fastweb.org. And Sallie Mae maintains the online site www.collegeanswer.com that has a calculator families can use to compare college aid packages.

Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, based in Pittsburgh, said some parents try to resist borrowing for children's education but that this strategy was increasingly unrealistic given the high costs of tuition and room and board.

"Some two-thirds of undergraduates have loans these days -- student loans or parent loans or both," he said.

And he cautioned that the cost of a college and the size of the financial aid package should not be the only considerations.

"Does the student have a choice between Harvard and a state institution? Or is one college better than another in the student's major?" Mr. Kantrowitz asked. "The cheapest school is not necessarily the best one for the student."

For Jacqueline Gil, 19, the financial aid offer from Florida International University in Miami was key to her decision to enter as a freshman last fall to study for a degree in pharmacy. Miss Gil, whose parents emigrated from Cuba in the 1980s, also said scholarships were critical.

"I applied for every scholarship I found out there, maybe 20 of them," she said. "There's a lot of competition, but I figured that the more you applied for, the better chance you'd have."