How was Financial Aid Calculated

Colleges & Universities Northwestern University
3

Throw out the FAFSA EFC and the Intuition estimate. They’re irrelevant. So is your reversed-engineered reasoning. Only two things matter:

  1. The NPC result for year 2020-21. Your family contribution is $5k higher than the estimate. Is that $5k AFTER loans are included in the FA?
  2. Your future years' FA. However, this will be a constant. You'll have the same issue at any university.

So, here’s what you need to do: CALL the FA office. Ask them why the FA offer does not match the NPC result. And then ask them to give you a pre-read for next year, if possible. Do your 2019 taxes so the pre-read can be accurate.

Do you have better FA offers at other colleges?