our offers varied greatly from the NPC on the schools websites
University of Miami was 400% above their NPC
Our cost at Drexel would be about 15%. below what we got from their NPC
Belmont would cost about 20% below their NPC
What have other folks found? I think it would be a good resource to future families to have this available for searches
It’s been mentioned that a lot depends on your personal situation. The more complicated your finances, the less accurate the NPC.
Ours were pretty straightforward.
Harvey Mudd was pretty spot on for us. I don’t remember one way or the other on other schools, but I think most were not a surprise.
Ours was off by 5k, which means it was within 20%. Unfortunately, it’s the difference between affordable and unaffordable.
Drexel and Miami use the Profile. It is very very possible that their NPCs don’t consider items that ARE used in the financial aid calculation.
Belmont is FAFSA only…but the school doesn’t have particularly deep pockets. So it’s great that your actual costs are LESS than you originally thought they would be. Is this still your kiddo’s top choice??
None of these colleges guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students…so seeing a gap between your FAFSA EFC, and the cost of attendance would be very likely.
Also…those NPCs won’t be accurate for self employed parents, parents who own a business, families who own real estate in addition to the primary residence, divorced parents, or international students.
So…if any of the the above applies to you…that would most definitely be a reason for a difference between the NPC and the actual award.
Also, check check check…because some folks do the NPCs and find later that the info isn’t the same as what was actually ON their financial aid forms.
I know this is very hard for some families, as they look to the NPCs for some guidance…but really…they are an estimate.
NPCs are not accurate in certain situation like divorced parents, self employed or with small business. Also, schools with their own forms or use CSS profile would collect additional information and calculate in their own way. So it is not uncommon if you see all these ups and downs in the actual FA. For simple family like us with just one simple source of income with a single property and no excessive investment or retirement fund, the NPCs for my 2 daughter’s from several need met schools are pretty accurate.
At Miami, what aid did the NPC say you were going to get that you didn’t? Was it a need based grant from the school? Did it state you’d receive the Pell grant but you didn’t? Was a merit scholarship not awarded?
Simple family situation. State U that only used the FAFSA. NPC was practically to the dollar for the aid package.
We have a straight-forward situation.
Eldest applied to in-state colleges and full-need privates. The full need privates all met our EFC or shaved off an extra grand (she’s attending one of those.) The public’s gave her the top grant which covered tuition but being in a pricey state, living at home would be the only way to beat the private school offers even including travel expenses.
Fast forward 4 years and Son is going through it all. Our Efc is now 100 dollars over the top grant cut-off so all the public offers to date are a good 10k over our EFC unless living at home. NPC didn’t catch that. We are grateful that came out this year though instead of next when we would have been committed to a school for 3 years full pay (well, minus the 1k middle class grant they threw in.) So, he’s planning on attending one of the private schools he’s gotten into which have all met or are less than our EFC… even the one school that does not profess to give full need.
My daughter’s financial aid package was within $100 of the NPC estimator at her ED school.
My wife is a independent contractor with a S corp
That may be the reason their NPC wasn’t close to accurate
Yes…your wife’s employment status could very well be the reason. It is very possible she takes business deductions allowed by the IRS that are added back in as income for financial aid purposes by SOME colleges.
The NPC was within $50 of the cost.
It is possible that some colleges’ NPCs are more accurate than others in these situations, but the chance of user error for these situations is higher as well.
The divorce situation probably results in a lot of user error unless the college puts explicit instructions in the NPC about what to do in that situation (as Princeton does).
Ithaca came up 5k short of what the NPC predicted. We are married, with no unusual circumstances. It predicted 28k in scholarships/grants. The actual package was a 15K scholarship and an 8k grant. McDaniel, a CTCL school with a much lower student population, offered 33k total (and the COA is 5k lower to begin with). I don’t think they’ll care what McDaniel offered, but it was worth a try. A few thousand could bring it within reach. My wife and I don’t think Ithaca is the better fit, but if it turns out to be affordable we won’t say no.
Very likely. Your wife’s income may appear to be much lower than it is due to the many deductions she’s allowed to take…maybe car, phone, gas, insurance, and on and on. Many CSS profile schools add those back in.
What did the NPC predict Miami aid to be? 400% sounds like you were expected to pay something like $10k/yr but Miami actually calculated that you’re to pay $40k.
@mom2collegekids Pretty much - $11,500 vs $46.0000
I was expecting an EFC of half that considering we have another kid in college.
Cautionary tale for future parents interested in University of Miami
But look at the NPC for Miami and see what that aid was supposed to be - a particular scholarship that you didn’t get, financial need grant that your didn’t get, loans? To be 'missing $35k in need based aid out of one school but getting it from others seems very strange to me if all are using the same FAFSA and CSS info.
If the FAFSA EFC was also $30k for each kid, that seems off too. How would one school recognize two in school but UMiami not?
If the difference in Drexel and UMiami is a merit award, well, that’s just how it is. The NPCs can’t fix that.
Did Drexel give a merit scholarship??
You were expecting an EFC of half of what? Half of 11.5k or half of 46k?
Not really a cautionary tale about Miami, but one about css profile and having business deductions.
And about colleges that do NOT guarantee to meet full need for all.
I would,give Miami a call…and ask them to maybe explain why your aid was so much lower than their NPC indicated. They will be able to tell you. But likely…it’s those business deductions…which do not get taken into consideration on the NPC.
Columbia was within $50, and Stanford was precise to the dollar for our simple one-income family situation with a lot of need.