# ScholarPulse Financial Aid Estimator

> ScholarPulse Financial Aid Estimator is a paid API for AI agents from scholarpulse-bice.vercel.app, paid per call via x402, $0.12/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Returns an estimated financial aid package by income bracket using College Scorecard data, including net cost, Pell Grant eligibility, and institutional generosity metrics.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://scholarpulse-bice.vercel.app/api/aid
- Price: $0.12/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/scholarpulse-financial-aid-estimator-1b7677bc
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_ioJ6gSIFVgN_cfvJQtxnf

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability scholarpulse-financial-aid-estimator-1b7677bc
```

Example prompt: Can you estimate the financial aid package I'd get at University of Michigan with a family household income around $55,000 — specifically the net cost, whether I'd qualify for a Pell Grant, and how generous that school tends to be?

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need a quick, data-backed financial aid estimate for a specific U.S. college broken down by income bracket, particularly when assessing Pell eligibility and institutional generosity. Prefer this over FAFSA strategy tools when the goal is school-specific net cost comparison rather than SAI calculation.

## Known failure modes

- College not found in College Scorecard database — returns null or empty result
- Invalid or unrecognized income bracket — returns validation error
- College Scorecard data unavailable or stale — returns partial or cached result
- Missing required parameters such as college name or income — returns 400-level error
- Rate limit or payment failure — returns 402 or 429 error

## How this service works

Financial aid estimate for student and financial-aid agents. Returns expected aid package by income bracket via College Scorecard, net cost, Pell eligibility, and institutional generosity.

## Output

Returns a structured financial aid estimate including expected aid package amount by income bracket, net cost after aid, Pell Grant eligibility status, and an institutional generosity rating — all sourced from College Scorecard data.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET",
      "HEAD",
      "DELETE"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "assets": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "optional"
      },
      "income": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "75000 (household income)"
      },
      "college": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "University of Michigan | Harvard | UT Austin | any US college name"
      },
      "family_size": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "dependency_status": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "dependent | independent (optional)"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "errors": {
     "type": "object",
     "description": "Documented error responses, keyed by HTTP status code",
     "additionalProperties": {
      "type": "object",
      "required": [
       "description"
      ],
      "properties": {
       "example": {
        "type": "object"
       },
       "description": {
        "type": "string"
       }
      }
     }
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "college": "University of Michigan",
  "pell_grant": {
   "likely_eligible": false,
   "estimated_amount": "$0-500"
  },
  "four_year_estimate": "$74,000",
  "net_price_estimate": {
   "confidence": "high (College Scorecard data)",
   "estimated_for_this_household": 18500
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/scholarpulse-financial-aid-estimator-1b7677bc/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from scholarpulse-bice.vercel.app](https://www.zero.xyz/host/scholarpulse-bice.vercel.app/llms.txt)