Parent of a sophomore here (well -she’s almost done -so almost a rising Junior!). We’ve been doing preliminary college hunting and a few months ago - I created a list and religiously ran the NPC (Net price calculators). Everything on the list was within budget.
Recently was running some new numbers, and noticed that I had ‘within budget’ for U Rochester instead of an actual cost - so I re-ran it just to update the spreadsheet.
Within budget for us is $27K (or less). When I re-ran University of Rochester, it was now $45K. From what I can piece together, the new FAFSA updates can have a radical impact on NPC –
Based on this, I started re-running the NPC for colleges on the list. Some colleges use a standard NPC, and others use the CSS.
ALL the schools using CSS were still within or below budget. The ones that had calculators based on SAI, changed dramatically.
So far the big ‘hits’ have been to University of Rochester, and RIT.
But on the plus side, It’s made me look for more schools -and I did find a bunch of affordable options. But applying to colleges takes time and money - no sense have schools on the list you can’t afford.
Your mileage may vary --because we have a (middle class) income but minimal assets.
ALSO - make sure to use the NPC at the college website. (College Raptor’s NPC is unreliable.)
Good advice to use the NPC accessible from each school’s site (no college raptor, no myintuition.)
FAFSA SAI for many students was initially being calculated incorrectly (the Fed’s online estimator was wrong too)…so if schools were relying on the Fed’s info they may have had NPC formulas loaded inaccurately.
Who knows if the NPCs are even fixed now (I would expect that is a low priority right now)…I would call FA offices and ask if the NPCs are accurate.
So if a school’s NPC links to College Raptor is that not reliable? Some schools I’ve researched are linked to College Raptor and not the college board site.
I think the NPCs variation is so weird because we have a weird economic situation. We were working class (Pell grant eligible) for many years, but in the past 2 years, my partner landed a better job and it changed our income levels substantially. Thanks to years of not having much income, we have very little in the way of assets.
The new FAFSA calculations basically kick us for having a higher income, and don’t consider the lack of assets at all.
The CSS takes into account our lack of assets, and awards substantially more financial aid. It also means that GENERALLY private schools (with ridiculous sticker prices) are much more affordable than state schools.
However, it looks like some colleges may have used College Raptor previously, but changed to some other NPC like the College Board one. So always start at the college’s financial aid Web site to ensure getting to the NPC that the college currently uses, rather than an old one that is no longer maintained.
I’m assuming THAT situation is probably okay? But here’s one example: Scripps NPC per College Raptor is 40K and yet Scripps says it meets need. (And that is NO WHERE close.) So I reached out to Scripps and they said, “Don’t use that calculator - only the one on our website is accurate”. Scripps calculator on their website? 22K . Obviously, that’s the difference between ‘Potential Reach School’ and ‘Don’t bother applying here’.
It’s important to understand that meeting need means meeting need as the school defines need. FAFSA only schools rarely meet need. CSS Profile schools often meet need, but they can determine need based on an internal definition of need (although all students will be subject to that definition, so it’s not capricious).
It’s also important to note that a FAFSA only school that doesn’t meet need is not going to award as much aid as a school that meets need. So it may not be that the FAFSA is punishing you for not having assets … what’s more likely is that it’s just gapping you (awarding less aid than your calculated need) … because the schools don’t meet need.
This is not necessarily true. A “meet need” school whose definition of “need” is unfavorable to you may give a higher net price than a school that does not claim to “meet need”.
Yes, that’s true. And a FAFSA only school with a cost of attendance that is less than your SAI will likely be less expensive (in terms of your net cost) than any school with a cost of attendance that is more than your SAI. (With the caveat that there are always weird exceptions, and merit only is not part of this particular what-if.)
When I find a public school with a cost of attendance less than my SAI – I’ll let you know. Haha! I’m joking a bit -but the bigger state schools are definitely above AT or above that mark. (Few exceptions — University of Vermont with standard merit is less. Think Illinois Tech with standard merit is less too.)
One data point here: with D22, our FAFSA EFC was ~35k. One CSS Profile “meets need” school determined that we could pay 39k and then bundled so many loans in the aid package that our out-of-pocket COA would’ve been 53k. Another CSS Profile “meets need” school determined that we could pay 18k.
My D had a similar experience years ago. Her favorite school bundled in institutional loans on top of federal loans. It was a hard no. She ended up at a school that cost less than our state flagship would have cost. Everyone has their own unique financial situation, and every school is different for financial aid. It makes it tough, but at least the NPC can be helpful for students whose parents don’t have unusual income circumstances.
I’m seeing similar things (wild variations in offers). While making the Reach/Target/Safety list with regard to FINANCES and Academics: Reaches are easy to find (some of those schools have BIG endowments), targets so-so (a FEW 'goldilocks options in there – strong academics with good/moderate acceptance rates for her stats) but safeties (where she would want to go/academically strong) are REALLY difficult. We might only end up with two safeties. But we will work more on the list next year, and maybe more options will emerge.
Wouldn’t a stronger student have an easier time finding safeties, since a greater range of colleges will be safeties for a stronger student than a weaker student?
Safeties in terms of places she would want to go Or another way -Safeties that are better academically AND cheaper than her state school. The education at her state option is good -she just really wants to explore someplace else. But she knows state school/honors college may work out being the better financial choice in the end.
We were in a similar situation with my two. Neither of them had a true safety that they really wanted to attend. They knew that our great in state options would be fine and I felt they would have good experiences and academics there, but they were both hoping for other schools to work out financially. Luckily they were accepted to some schools with great financial aid, so they were able to have some choices that seemed like better fit colleges.
Or another way -Safeties that are better academically AND cheaper than her state school. The education at her state option is good -she just really wants to explore someplace else. But she knows state school/honors college may work out being the better financial choice in the end.