Accuracy of College Aid Pro versus NPC

[beefeater]

@ucbalumnus

Perhaps the safest way to go is to assume that the more pessimistic one (i.e. the one with less FA and higher net price) is the more accurate one.

Yes, but then D26 will likely not apply. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s useful to know if certain NPCs are way off that they might still be worth applying to (NOT ED) if we might expect something more than what the NPC says. That’s all I was trying to judge - just if I’m getting a weird estimate if maybe it should be worth D26s time to try her luck or not.

@blossom

I have never heard of ANYONE who got more money from Hamilton than Princeton. So regardless of the methodology- I’d be a tad suspicious.

100% agree. I’m skeptical, hence the ask of what others have personally experienced.

[thumper1]

The Net Price Calculators can be a guide…but more important…your student needs to know what you parents will pay annually. They need to understand that if the money does not come in at or very close to that price point, the student won’t be able to attend that college.

Kids apply to colleges all the time in hopes they will get sufficient funding. This is especially true with merit aid that is not guaranteed by colleges. Sometimes the money IS forthcoming…and sometimes…it’s not.

[cloudymind]

Quote “Most college NPCs are built using minimal data and outdated assumptions. A lot of them rely on the Department of Education’s basic template, which doesn’t account for assets, nuanced merit aid, or detailed family financial info.”

I am not sure I get what you mean.

I have run about 20 NPC from various schools (Top 50 schools and some Top LAC schools), mostly from NPC link on CollegeBoard, and all of them ask detailed financial information, such primary home current value, debt, purchase price and year, investment property current value and debt, other income source, family income, tax paid.

All asked very detailed information, and I can only assume the NPC would be very accurate.

Unless there are some other schools’ NPC is not like this, which did not occur to me yet.

[ucbalumnus]

@cloudymind

I have run about 20 NPC from various schools (Top 50 schools and some Top LAC schools), mostly from NPC link on CollegeBoard, and all of them ask detailed financial information, such primary home current value, debt, purchase price and year, investment property current value and debt, other income source, family income, tax paid.

All asked very detailed information, and I can only assume the NPC would be very accurate.

Colleges that use The College Board’s CSS Profile and use The College Board NPC template are more likely to have accurate NPC results.

However, colleges that use The College Board’s CSS Profile but use a less detailed NPC template (like the Department of Education one) are likely to have less accurate NPC results if the financial situation is not simple (married parents, mainly W-2 income, ordinary assets). But this does not necessarily mean that a reverse-engineered NPC from College Aid Pro will be more accurate – that depends on whether it has a large enough sample size from those with similar financial situations as you for that college.