Are FIN AID Grants reliable year to year?

Paying for College
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@MassDaD68 - You mentioned your family size will remain the same, as this is your first child entering college. During the next 4 years, will any younger sibling also enter college? A lot of schools FA formula gives credit to the fact you are now paying for 2 in undergrad instead of just 1 - especially when they expect the bulk of it is coming from your cash flow.

Some of the horror stories I have heard (elsewhere) about when it comes people complaining about the bait and switch are actually things that should have been quite predictable - families who complain when the aid drops for child #3, after #1 and #2 graduate. Well, if their family size drops, there should be more available for the remaining child, so the need should go down.

I really want to emphasize how important it is that when you contact the FA dept to ask questions, do your best to avoid the temptation of looking at this as if it were an adversarial relationship. These people really want to help - their department name contains “aid” after all. It is not just the money they are gifting to your child, but the information that you can use. And for the most part, any question you may have will be something they have dealt with before. Also, this is a crazy busy time of year for FA departments, so extra patience is key.

As others have pointed out, relying on non-guaranteed needs based aid involves some risk, but you should be able to get the information for your situation that would help you understand whether or not the level of risk is worthwhile for your family.

Since you mentioned that this school is among your child’s top choices - I would recommend having another discussion with your child explaining how you are evaluating the cost side of things, where several factors remain unknown. I recall DS expressing his gratitude for being included in the process - he said he understood it was not our intention to share the worry, but that we wanted him to think about how we go about getting information. And it helped that with his mathematical brain, he could double check all the NPC estimates.

@CourtneyThurston fairly describes some of the risks that may or may not be applicable to your situation. But there are of course potential risks associated with attending the merit-based aid schools. Tuition increases, fees for certain majors, etc. are not the same at all schools, and sometimes can be unpredictable. If your child transfers from a merit-based school, you will also have questions.

I am the type of person that prefers to know as much of the information as possible before making a decision - and paying for college has been exceptionally maddening for us just because there are too many unknowns.

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@3puppies - with the prior year formula and the 2016 questionnaire on CSS towards expected income do awards that are grant/need based consider the 2016 information when making grant 2015 award decisions? My S received merit & grant which brings a private institution into the affordability range closest to my EFC and with the lowest amount of loans which makes the private school more affordable than the in State tuitions where he has been accepted but without need based aid. My concern is with NCP (non custodial profile) I have no idea what my sons father reported as income but what I do know is that his fathers income increased from virtually nothing in 2015 to a stable job in 2016. My income will remain relatively stable with no big surprises as will his fathers from the 2016 prediction he should have reported barring no one loses a job. I am genuinely concerned that if the school didn’t take into consideration the change in income for 2016 (that was known at the time of the freshman year application) that he is being enticed into a school that won’t be affordable his sophomore year even though the school was fully aware of the financial picture change in 2016. Do you or anyone on this thread have any knowledge of how current 2016 income is viewed when awarding grants? My thoughts are the schools intentions when awarding merit/grants is that the schools intentions are good and have an eye towards retention of the student over 4 years. However with very little transparency in terms of publications as to how current 2016 financial pictures are viewed when making need based awards it is creating a high level of uncertainty in terms of whether or not your making the right choice for your child. The last thing in the world I would ever want to happen to my S is send him to a school that we thought was affordable and the next year it is not and he can no longer attend the school and yet we provided the school with 2016 current/proper income considerations and they chose to use the lower years income to get him to accept the offer and attend the school.

43

@NEBlue -

You raise a good question, and I would say the best approach would be to see how his award compares with the Net Price Calculator (NPC) estimate. If you plug in the 2016 income (for both parents) do you get close to the need based aid they actually gave your son?

Presumably, you and your son can retrieve the information that the non-custodial parent provided, but if not, you should be able back into the numbers since you know what your were. If not, then I hope your relationship with your ex is such that he respects your son enough to provide him with the information needed to make this important decision. It is sometimes sad to have to put your son into the middle of this, but I am sure he understands the importance of trying to maximize his financial aid, and I would expect that your ex wants the same thing - to do what has to be done to put your sons’ needs first.

My guess it that it is possible that different schools might be viewing this slightly differently, because it sounds like the current 2016 year’s income estimate provided on the CSS profile application won’t be matching the prior 2015 year’s tax forms. In the past, schools weren’t always transparent about whether they used prior or current, and with the changes, they may not be as transparent about whether they use prior prior (2015) or prior (2016).

But this is something that the school’s FA department will be able to answer rather easily. When you tell them you understand there was a material change in 2016 over 2015, and you want to make sure the 2016 was used because the 2017 will likely look closer to 2016 than 2016 was compared to 2015. They have undoubtedly dealt with this before, you aren’t trying to get a peek at your ex’s income, you just want to be sure of what was used to get a better idea as to what to expect future years.

It does not surprise me that a private school offering need based aid will end up with a lower net price than a public , even after merit.

I would guess that they will probably tell you they are using the full combined 2016 income.

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@3puppies thank you for the reply. I will reach out to the schools FA department. One can only hope that they asked for 2016 information for a reason! Praying that it is an accurate assessment as it’s a deal breaker for my S to attend the school.

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If your ex-husband started a stable job in 2016, will he be able and willing to contribute to your son’s education expenses for the sophomore year (2018-2019)? The school’s expectation is that your son’s father will contribute if he is able to.

46

One more thing @NEBlue - the amount your ex husband earns could make a big difference. If he has a steady job but earns $10/hour for 40 hrs/week, that’s $20 grand a year, which is a whole lot different than if he has a steady job earning say 75K. But just like the OP, I am glad to hear you will be calling the school FA dept to ask for clarification.

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@am9799, @z57c4 I have not read the full thread, but I specifically recall the Northeastern admission rep at last year’s engineering info session that NEU is not a full need school, but need aware school. She repeated it twice to make sure everyone understood.

48

You are confusing various terms. “Full need” is a financial aid term that describes a policy toward awarding need-based aid. “Need aware” is an admissions term that describes an admissions policy dealing with how financial need is treated while making an admissions decision. “Full need” has nothing to do with “need aware.”

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@cag60093
They might be need aware in admissions but once admitted they claim to meet 100% of demonstrate need for all students