Am I interpreting the Estimated Net Price correctly?

Paying for College
1

My daughter is a junior. We are starting to make a list of colleges she may be interested in. Cost is definitely a factor, so so we are running the Net Price Calculator on all possibilities and eliminating those which we cannot afford. But I am not confident that I am interpreting the results of the calculator correctly. Please review the following two examples, and correct any misconceptions I may have.

I realize that for any school, the Estimated Net Price calculator is an estimate only, and the actual cost is likely to differ. But will it be in the same ballpark, usually?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Example 1 : Northeastern

  • Northeastern does not ask for GPA, test scores, rank, etc in the Net Price Calculator.
  • Northeastern’s Net Price Calculator has a statement that “The estimated cost does not include merit-based scholarship programs, ranging from $5,000 to full tuition annually.”
  • My results are Total Cost of Attendance = $62,800, Northeastern Grant/Gift = $22,700, Net Price = $40,100.
  • Northeastern’s website says “Students who are admitted to Northeastern and are recognized as National Merit Finalists* or National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholars** will receive up to $30,000 merit based award per academic year or up to $15,000 merit based award per academic semester and may also be eligible for financial aid.”

If my daughter is a National Merit Finalist, would we be looking at a net cost of $10,100 (40,100 - 30,000) or $32,800 (62,800 - 30,000)? I interpret it as $10,100, but that seems to good to be true.

Example 2 : Renssealer

  • Renssealer does ask about GPA, test scores, rank, etc in the Net Price Calculator.
  • My results are Total Cost of Attendance = $66,172, Renssealer Grants/Scholarships = $30,350, Net Price = $30,322.

I interpret this as the entire price, with no further grants/scholarships.

2

Scholarships may be used to replace other line items in the financial aid sheet. It is not necessarily true that a scholarship of $X will reduce the net price by $X if you are also receiving need-based financial aid grants. Some schools list a policy on their web site (examples [here[/url] and [url=<a href=“https://students.ucsd.edu/finances/financial-aid/types/scholarships/]here[/url]”>Scholarships]here](Outside Awards : Stanford University)), but others may not say anything of that sort on their web sites, so you have to ask directly.

The worst case is that a scholarship will first reduce grants, so there would be no reduction in net price unless the scholarship exceeds the grant amount.

An apparently common case is that scholarships will first reduce student loan, student work, and/or unmet need line items, then reduce grants, and lastly reduce (institutional) EFC.

A net price calculator that asks about GPA, test scores, rank, etc. is probably estimating scholarships as well as need-based financial aid. However, actual scholarships may vary, as can actual need-based financial aid if your financial situation is complex (e.g. self-employment, small business, real estate, etc.)

3

Yep, that’s too good to be true. She’d get the $30k merit award off, then they’d decide what remaining need you have.

We’re in almost the exact scenario you’re describing. I have a senior NMSF who will likely advance to NMF. She was admitted EA to Northeastern, and she got a tentative $22k grant, and then some small loans/work study. We also aren’t clear how the $30k off would affect things, but I certainly expect it would only replace the grant and some of the loans. We’d still be on the hook for something close to $30k. That’s how I interpret it anyway.

4

<<<
If my daughter is a National Merit Finalist, would we be looking at a net cost of $10,100 (40,100 - 30,000) or $32,800 (62,800 - 30,000)? I interpret it as $10,100, but that seems to good to be true.
<<<<

No. The merit would be subtracted first, and then the resulting number would be lower than your EFC, so you’d get no other aid except maybe a loan. No more free money.

If your goal is to reduce your net cost, then you have to apply to schools that will give you larger merit awards so that the resulting net cost is what you can pay.

The RPI results is using stats to estimate merit, so the calculation is probably close to accurate if you’ve provided good info.

5

[QUOTE=""]
  • Northeastern's website says "Students who are admitted to Northeastern and are recognized as National Merit Finalists* or National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholars** will receive up to $30,000 merit based award per academic year or up to $15,000 merit based award per academic semester and may also be eligible for financial aid." <<<

[/QUOTE]

This just means that a lowish EFC family would still have “need” after the merit is applied and therefore would still be eligible for FA.

$62800 COA

$30000 merit

$32000 after merit
$2000 EFC

The low EFC student would still have $30k in need and would get that $30k covered.

6

Yes, I would think that you would end up with a net price of about $30 k at both schools.

7

The key words in the northeastern info…“may be eligible” and “up to” the amount mentioned… Not guaranteed. NEU offers its most generous merit aid to the top 1% of accepted students. There is no way for yoi (or us) to know where your daughter will be.

Also, while you are doing the right thing to look at the NPCs for ESTIMATES, you should view these only as estimates. The NPCs right now, are set for students who will be incoming freshmen in 2016 fall. Your daughter won’t be a college student until a year later. The schools reset their NPCs in the very late summer for the upcoming admissions cycle, and yes,mthey do change from year to year in some cases. The policies of awarding aid change at school, and this will be reflected in the updates.

What is your daughter’s current GPA, and has she taken the SAT? Did she get her PSAT junior year scores? Is she in the ballpark for NMF status?

Keep in mind that schools like NEU, that offer excellent merit aid to NMF, get a lot of such applicants because of that aid. But also keep in mind…the NEU awards are not guaranteed for ALL NMF and there is a range of money offered.

You might want to look at the links in this thread. Look specifically for GUARANTEED awards fr your daughters SAT/ACT, GPA, and NM status. You will need need to check college websites as some of this information may have changed.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html#latest

8

The $30,000 NMF merit award would replace the $22,000 merit award. It would not be stacked.

9

Thank you all for your help. It is very much appreciated.

For thumper1 - Daughter is a junior, has a 3.9 unweighted GPA, 4.5 weighted GPA, ACT 34, ranked 1 out of 600 in an average public high school. She has her PSAT scores, and is on track for NMF status. Average extra-curriculars. She has not cured cancer, won national awards, etc.

We can reasonably afford $20-25K per year. Our EFC is near 35K. I think it is likely that she will be headed to an in-state university. It is what we can afford. We are aware of the few large universities that have guaranteed scholarships for NMF (Oklahoma, Kentucky, etc), but our own state school (University of Oregon) is decent and is more appealing to her. Her “dream school” is University of Chicago, but there’s no way I can afford that even if by some miracle she were accepted.

10

For more NMF scholarships, look at http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/ .

Also look at the following for more scholarships:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/

11

<<<<

We can reasonably afford $20-25K per year. Our EFC is near 35K. I think it is likely that she will be headed to an in-state university. It is what we can afford. We are aware of the few large universities that have guaranteed scholarships for NMF (Oklahoma, Kentucky, etc), but our own state school (University of Oregon) is decent and is more appealing to her. Her “dream school” is University of Chicago, but there’s no way I can afford that even if by some miracle she were accepted.
<<<

What is her intended major and career goal?

What does she like about UChicago? What does she know about it? Has she visited?

How does she feel about attending her instate flagship? It’s a very good school, but she does have the stats to get good sized merit elsewhere that would get your net costs to $15k-20k per year …or less.

Does University of Tulsa still have a large NMF award?

What about Miami, Tulane or SCU? She might get free tuition from those schools.

Fordham will give her free tuition. UDayton might give her free tuition or more.

As you already know, the OOS publics (Alabama, Oklahoma, Kentucky) will all give her very large awards and youur net cost would be less than $15k per year. But your DD or you don’t see the point in going OOS to a peer school when you have Oregon in your backyard. And that may be true, IF your DD is fine with that. My NMF son wanted to go to his instate flagship, but some kids want to go elsewhere…even if the school isn’t better than what they have locally. What is your DD’s position on that?

12

Oregon is a great school.

Re: affordability…you can pay $25,000 and your daughter can take a $5500 Direct loan for freshman year. That brings you to $30,500. Does she have a job? That could add a couple thousand too.

University of Chicago uses only the FAFSA and a very short form of their own for financial aid applications. The school also does award some merit awards. Merit likely reduces need…but maybe,just maybe it would bring your net cost down to where you want it to be. Could this be a reach for her as long as she understands that there is a net cost you cannot and will not exceed?

13

Okay, more details:

  • When I said we can reasonably afford 20K-25K, I was thinking 20K of my money plus 5K of her earnings and/or loan. We are aiming for graduating debt-free, but she is willing to take 5K loan per year for a top-tier school. She does understand that if she applies a “dream school”, she will be going there ONLY if it is affordable. (It would break her heart, but her head understands.)
  • Schools with religious affiliation are not a good fit.
  • She is passionate about math. She is taking Calc BC as a junior. She will likely attend Reed College for math as a HS senior, through their Young Scholars program. She has always talked about loving pure mathematics, and was set on staying in academia as a professor. But lately she is very interested in Economics, and has been talking about Financial Mathematics. She also sometimes talks about a Math/CS degree; she is not passionate about CS, but likes using it as a tool for her math. All this to say: Her major likely includes math, but she doesn't have a specific plan yet.
  • She is the kind of kid who loves to learn about everything. She would be happiest at a school that lets her take a variety of classes, not just those that apply directly to her major. She would probably be happier at a University than a College.
  • She is really looking forward to being around many other smart young people. She wants to learn from her peers as well as her instructors. She feels like this would not happen as much at a state school... including our own state school. She is not excited about attending University of Oregon, but doesn't see the point of going to a similar state school elsewhere, unless it is in a fabulous location.
  • She is particularly interested in California, the Northeast, or the Great Lakes area. The southeast is a hard sell. She would love to be near Seattle or Vancouver BC, but neither UW nor UBC are in our price range.
  • She wants to be near an interesting, vibrant medium to large city. Ideally would be able to take public transportation to the city, for concerts, museums, etc. (If she has any money left for those things!) But she wants a campus that feels like a campus, and is somewhat set apart from the city. She does not want to be directly inside a very large city, like New York or Washington DC. She does not want to be "in the middle of nowhere", like Oklahoma. She does not want to be at a rural college.
  • She doesn't want a very large university (greater than 30,000 undergrads) or a very small college (smaller than 2,000 undergrads).
  • Just recently, she brought up that she wants to study abroad.. multiple times if possible. That got us looking more closely at Miami University (Ohio).
  • What she likes about U of Chicago is... the marketing materials! :) That's all she really knows, at this point. But where other schools are promoting their sports, fraternities, etc, U Chicago promotes the academics. We went to a presentation when they came to Portland, and she really liked that it sounded like it is peopled by smart, driven students. (She also loves Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT. But, we know those are very very unlikely.)
  • We haven't visited any campuses outside of Oregon. It is expensive to travel, and we will need that money for college. Also, I don't want her to visit a place, love it, and then be crushed when I can't afford it. Our plan is to apply to a fairly large number of schools, and visit them only if she is accepted with a great financial package. In the meantime, we are "visiting" via online research, including resources like this one, social media, and even Google Street View.

Thank you again for all your help. I really appreciate it.

14

Definitely check out Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

15

University of Oregon’s standard economics major is not very mathematical; the usual intermediate economics courses EC 311 and 313 do not even use calculus, though the economics course EC 320 does use calculus and statistics. If she attends University of Oregon, she may want to see if she can substitute the more math intensive courses EC 411, 413, 423-424-425 in place of EC 311, 313, 320; these will likely be more interesting to her, and better preparation if she wants to go on to PhD study in economics. Or she can just major in math and choose the math intensive economics courses as out-of-major electives.

http://economics.uoregon.edu/undergraduate-studies/major-requirements/
http://uocatalog.uoregon.edu/arts_sciences/economics/#courseinventory

16

@kittencrash You are wise to build your college list with a range of financial safeties in mind. By the end of junior year, we had a long list with a range of automatic, possible, and reach (competitive) full tuition and full tuition plus awards, and one school that says it meets 100% need.

We are in no position to spend our EFC for four years on an undergrad degree for one kid.

We made a big spreadsheet and tried not to let too much optimism seep in. If you take this year’s tuition, room, and board and add in 3-5%, there’s your estimate for your D’s freshman year. Add in 3-5% for each subsequent year and get a four year COA figure. It will magnify the differences between schools and reality can set in.

We waited until August of senior year for the schools to update their web sites and see if the scholarships we based our long list on were still being offered. Schools that bump up the test scores required, or reduce the award, or change an award from automatic to competitive will help you trim your long list.

Watch your deadlines carefully, for admissions and scholarship applications. Keep on eye on any unreasonably high GPA requirements to keep four year scholarships. Does full tuition mean tuition and fees or only tuition? Does the award adjust each year to cover increasing costs or is it a fixed dollar amount? Are there other restrictions on the award?

Skim the threads here on CC and you’ll learn of other schools that potentially offer big merit awards.

I asked my kid to try to remain open, and not to veto any financial safety school too early in the process. It seemed to ease anxiety that we were simply deciding where to apply, not deciding where she’s going.

Don’t forget about room & board, and plane tickets, if applicable. My kid was fortunate enough to receive the Semi-Finalist Scholarship (full tuition) from Fordham. However, Fordham’s room and board is hovering near $17K per year. We would have to add in plane tickets, and consider the options for living less expensively as an upperclassman. Add in the 3-5% cost increases, and the spreadsheet revealed a four year COA that was much higher than other schools on her short list. We just don’t want to pay that much, especially when there are good options for a lot less money.

Good luck!

17

Don’t let the study abroad business derail you from the main event. One of my kids wanted the study abroad experience but the sequencing of classes at the home university proved to be too difficult (unless we were prepared to pay for an extra semester- which some kids do- but for us was completely off the table).

Guess what- kid got a summer fellowship for a specific program abroad, it covered air fare, sublet on an apartment, and a modest meal subsidy. Kid was able to cover the costs of incidentals by doubling up on hours at the summer job from HS in May/early June and late August. (the advantage of not burning your bridges when a kid leaves for college- the ability to get your job back for a few weeks when you need it!)

The U was a perfect fit in virtually every way except for the sequencing in the major which made study abroad very tough during a conventional semester… but voila- a summer session (paid for by someone other than the bank of mom and dad) seemed to do the trick.

Some majors just aren’t as flexible as others. Don’t rule out a good fit school, which might be affordable, because the study abroad options might not work. More than one way to skin the cat. Plus grad school? A year overseas after getting the BA???

The other thing that jumps out at me from your post is the city/rural thing. SOME (not all) colleges in non-cities have a full blown calendar of art, literary, scientific speakers and symposia and interesting things to do on the weekends and in the evenings. You don’t have to be in a city to enjoy city-like intellectual activities.

18

@kittencrash I’d encourage your D to remain open. Her list of what she wants and doesn’t want in a school + location may change, even signficantly, over the next year.

An Honors College at a big OOS flagship, filled with bright kids & opportunity, and offering your D a big pile of merit money might take a school that was initially off the table into contender territory.

19

Sounds like you are in Portland. My D attended L&C which has a wonderful study abroad program. That may be too close to home for you.

20

@kittencrash - just an additional data point…Northeastern meets full need (as they define it). So unless the merit award exceeds the need-based aid they offer, I wouldn’t expect the net price to change.