<p>Out of three universities I’ve applied to that meet full demonstrated financial need, two have an expected family contribution of ~20000 (same as on the FAFSA). Chicago (the other one) has me paying full freight (~55000). What gives? I’m not concerned about my specific situation here (I’ve already talked with the Chicago finaid office). </p>
<p>Rather, I want to know if this sort of enormous variation in how colleges determine need is common, specifically at Chicago, and generally among colleges that meet full need. Because this just seems patently ridiculous. I can’t comprehend how one place could determine that we can afford x, and another thinks we can pay almost 3x.</p>
<p>What’s surprising to me is that two of the universities matched FAFSA EFC. I thought everyone who met full need used the Profile to calculate need, and that would usually produce a very different number unless the family essentially had no assets or savings.</p>
<p>Basically, as I understand it, colleges that calculate need based on assets and savings as well as income differ in a number of respects – how they value hard-to-value assets like closely-held businesses or farms, what they assume about the availability of savings (including retirement savings) to pay for education (and for which kids, and how quickly, and whether it includes graduate school), how they deal with siblings. Those can produce some pretty big differences.</p>
Well, they deviated from FAFSA EFC by plus or minus 15%, which isn’t much in the grand scheme of things. All three indeed did indeed use the CSS Profile. </p>
<p>
I guess. My next question, then, is why do they value these various assets differently? Like, in this case, Chicago’s significantly different valuation formula denies me the ability to attend there. Contrariwise, another student whose need is deemed to be greater by Chicago than by other institutions that meet full need will likely be drawn to Chicago. So they’re basically attracting or dissuading students based on the specific way in which their assets are distributed, which to me seems very silly.</p>
<p>Well there is the Profile and FAFSA but ultimately colleges and universities will have their own formulas based on their needs and quotas. there is no transparency and there isn’t a dmn thing we can do about it. Personally, I do not believe “private” institutions are actually private once they have accepted federal money of ANY kind. They are, de facto, semi or quasi private institutions and as such should be required to reveal their formulae.</p>