I was checking the need based aid from some schools and found Chicago gave significant aid change.
Last year the aid was around 45K with 2024 tax return and this year the aid was 12K with 2025 tax return. The 2024 and 2025 return are very similar.
My kid did not apply to Chicago even it was on my radar for being one of the generous school for need based aid.
But how can the school change the aid this much, which may make one year affordable and another year the cost will be out of reach. (If the net price calculator results from Chicago is not due to technical glitch).
If the student did enroll with such school, how can the student and parents navigate this?
Simply put, yes, colleges can change their need based aid formulats. Their money, their rules.
I don’t know of any big change to U Chicago’s aid formula, but you may be able to reverse engineer it by playing around with the 2025 numbers, assuming you are using the NPC.
Did you use the NPC? It could simply have a calculation error or they may have changed (yes, they can). It could also be - whatever did change even if not substantial, hit upon a cliff of some sort.
But your question should be asked directly to the school’s financial aid office.
Some school assure your cost will stay the same while others say it can adjust year to year.
Colleges will change their financial aid formulas & policies year to year due to federal, state, or educational institution policy changes. For example, the FAFSA shift from Expected Family Contribution (EFC) to Student Aid Index (SAI) changed how federal student aid eligibility is calculated. Current endowment performance & enrollment goals at the college/university can also affect next year’s financial aid, including grant & scholarship availability.
The 2024 tax return info would be used for the 2026-2027 academic year. Those are the students starting college this fall.
The 2025 tax return info will be used for the 2027-2028 academic year…which will start fall 2027. The financial aid application forms won’t even be available for this academic year until October 1. How would you already know the aid a student will be receiving for the 2027-2028 academic year…or is this what the net price calculator is saying?
This is the answer. The financial aid office should be able to tell you why there is a difference…but I don’t think they can do so until your financial aid forms are submitted for the 2027-2028 academic year.
Not looking at UChicago or financial aid, but adding that I’ve noticed a few NPCs that worked really well for merit last year are giving slighly less merit this year - even though student’s stats have improved slightly. (Prospective student, needing to chase merit - LACs in the 50-80 ranking range).
Schools generally use merit to attract students whose stats are above average for that school, thus bringing up the overall academic calibre. It is possible that as they succeed at that, the bar gets raised or the need (and hence the merit aid) is reduced, or overall grade inflation has impacted the cutoffs.
You’re wise to be checking these again as the only one that ultimately matters is the one in your application year.
I could be wrong, but it sounded to me @cloudymind was referring to need based aid differences as they referenced income not changing between the two years.
There certainly have been net price calculators that are less than accurate…and there are also schools where the bar for need based aid might be just enough different that a student would not qualify for as much aid. And as noted by others, schools do sometimes change their formulas.
This all can be clarified by asking the financial aid office!
The OP is a prospective applicant using the NPC. They are not interested in the school where the results differed, so it seems that reaching out to the FA office will just waste a lot of people’s time.
That is correct. I was building school lists last year for class 2026 and this year for class 2027.
If the NPC shows the school is affordable, it may be included in the applying list.
If NPC shows the school is too expensive, it will be dropped. If they cannot make the NPC work correctly, not my problem. There are many other great schools with better NPC available.