Students who apply ED and need FA should, at the minimum, run the school’s NPC and save all the inputs and outputs. Make sure their families’ finances are straightforward (e.g. no business ownership). If they’re low income but with significant home equity, they should run multiple scenarios of estimated home price, as colleges aren’t going to use applicants’ own inputs but rely on their own different methodologies. Equally importantly, run NPCs of other colleges which the students may have applied to if they didn’t apply ED. They may be surprised by significant differences between them sometimes. Finally, be extra careful with a few schools that are known to have inaccurate NPCs or offer inferior FA packages.
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