One of the net price calculators we have run gives us a range: A “low, best, and high” estimate. The low is perfect, the best is doable, and the high is out of the question. If my daughter applies ED at this school, would we have any leverage if they offer the “high” amount? It’s the NPC right off of their website. If I show them the printout, is it possible they would at least honor their “best” offer? Or would she only have that leverage with RD.
If they offered the high estimate, she would have to back out of the ED commitment because it wouldn’t be financially feasible. I’m wondering if they would just say, “Ok, be on your way” or if they would instead help make it affordable— specifically because their NPC has this “range” so to speak. Has anyone had an experience they could share?
They are giving you a range…and you have no way of knowing which amount your kid will actually receive.
If financial aid is a significant consideration…i would not apply ED to this (or in my opinion…any) college. You could very well have the highest of the net costs on that NPC.
What college is this? If it’s a college that doesn’t guarantee to meet full need for all…I would assume the higher net cost. Just my opinion.
The NPCs are in no way a guarantee, so there is nothing to ‘honor’. The school has no way of knowing if you put the information in correctly, if your asset situation changed since you did the NPC, if things at the schools changed (tuition increase, change in merit scholarship requirements) from the prior year.
The NPCs are often not up to date, especially in Aug and Sept when the tuition just increased and will increase again before your child starts school the following Aug or Sept.
It is need blind and meets full need—A competitive college, so the ED would hopefully help admission, hence the dilemma. I guess the question I’m asking is, has anyone successfully negotiated a price if the ED offer wasn’t affordable (and the NPC had predicted it could be prior to applying)?
@twoinanddone When D18 was being recruited a LAC coach told us that as a slotted athlete (RD) they would honor the NPC figure even if the final financial aid package came in higher. So I’m not sure colleges completely discount that figure…
I would think you would have a good chance having them honor the ‘high’ value, worst case. They certainly have no obligation to honor the ‘best’, since all three are in the range they quoted. If I were you, I would not have my child apply ED, since I wouldn’t want to be cutting things so close, financially, anyway. Especially if I had younger children, or wanted to have a life.
If it was a D3 LAC, I’d think the coach has little to say about it. Coaches can’t give out scholarships and can’t tell the FA office what to do. And the coach can’t know if the NPC was filled out correctly, if all the assets were included, if the parents knew to add back in the 401k contributions.
I’m not saying that schools do not look at the NPCs that you saved and reconsider the FA, but earlier this year a parent posted that U of San Francisco’s award wasn’t close, and they did say “Sorry, that happens sometimes.”
Negotiate a financial aid package based on…what? If the issue is your kid gets accepted ED, but can’t afford to attend, the college will allow you to withdraw from the ED acceptance.
If you want the school to RECONSIDER (note…not negotiate…this isn’t a used car sales), you would have to have a reason for asking them to do so…loss of a job, some medical issue that is costing you money that isn’t reflected on your financial aid application forms…or some other substantive change in your finances since your Profile and FAFSA were submitted.
Some of these generous schools WILL reconsider a financial aid offer if you have a better one from a peer school…but when you apply ED, you only can apply to one school…so you won’t have anything for the college to look at and compare.
And here is the real rub for you…the ED net cost could be the very best one your kid will see…and if you decline it…you can’t get it back. OR it might be the worst one. You will never know if you accept the offer…because you will be required to withdraw all other applications and acceptances.
I will stick with my first answer. It sounds like finances are a significant consideration for your family. This NPC is giving you a range of results. For all practical purposes, assume the worst.
I would agree that the ED process discriminates against kids who need to compare offers - ED works well instead for the very poor who will get a full-ride anywhere, and for families wealthy enough to be full-pay everywhere.
But if this school really is your child’s top choice by far, then I’d suggest calling the FA office, perhaps for a pre-read, or at least for clarification on the ranges for the NPC. For many of the need-blind application, full-needs met schools, the school can afford to be generous, and simply doesn’t want financial need to be the reason an accepted student declines to attend. If you explain your student is considering applying ED, but the NPC range is confusing, they will be able to discuss some of the variables in the full FA application that might not be in the short NPC questionnaire.
Don’t hesitate to ask the FA department - they are there to help students and families. Also, if you and others have questions, chances are that other families might as well. They are always trying to improve their process to make things easier on families.
Go to the NPCof similar schools, the common rivals for applicants for that school, a couple considered a bit more selective, a couple slightly less and see what their NPCs are. Are there wide variances there?
The direct answer to your question is “yes”. You can discuss the financial aid package and there can be changes made to it. Schools do not like their ED admits to drop the process. It doesn’t look good on them. The ED cycle gets them their sure bets. Do look and see if CDS shows % who do accept ED. Compare CDS info to those peer schools.
The poor do not get full rides at very many colleges, though they may get them at many of the colleges these forums focus on. But a student from a poor family may want to use the ranked multiple ED application of Questbridge match instead of regular ED to one college.
I do not think ED discriminates against “poor” families. If a family with high need does not get amounts that the NPC indicates, and discussion with the school does not result in getting a financial aid package that is feasible or what the parents feel they can do, they simply get out of ED and proceed with the rest of the applications with this learning experience in mind.
Most schools want ED to work out so its your best bet to get some package that is affordable. The catch is that you have to do the homework in knowing his peer schools work with NPC so you get some idea where you are in the financial aid picture. If the numbers are way off, you can get an idea or reason why, and get to work in picking. some other financial safeties. You know from your ED bid that the possibility that Fin aid isn’t going to work out is real.
The kids and families hit hardest with ED are those needing merit money. They already know that Fin aid is going to be insufficient. For their kids to go to a high priced school, they HAVE to get scholarships. ED rarely rolls out the scholarships with acceptances. In fact, ED kids don’t generally get merit money. Merit money is often given in the spring to get the students a college most wants to commit. ED is a done deal; why offer them any money?
@2manycollegequestions4me - my experience with the FA package and group at Notre Dame was awesome. Their initial FA letter was in line with their NPC. But, it was above my EFC. I requested they review my DS’s file again. As stated above, not a negotiation. My son wanted to go to ND, but the price was still too high for us. Notre Dame has a formal process for Reviewing FA at the student/family’s request. They reviewed and increased the aid. So, its possible to lobby (not negotiate ;-)) for more FA. I think the key in my case, my request was to bring my out-of-pocket down to my EFC. I have read on this forum that many schools, I think it was generally large state schools, will flat out stick with the initial FA letter. Good luck to you and your student.
Thank you for all of the very helpful replies—A lot to consider here. @usma87 I appreciate you sharing your experience— that is encouraging. However, after much discussion we are leaning toward advising our daughter to apply RD. Will let you all know what we ultimately decide and how it works out in the end.
I really believe you have a better chance to discuss the aid package st ED than sat RD. Schools want all of their ED admits to come through. Also they aren’t dealing with any where near the number of applications and aren’t under the time crunch they are when doing the RD apps. Very few discussions of ED packages as compared to RD because Those who need money tend to shy away from ED.
I can’t imagine that a coach should be saying that the school would honor the Net Price Calculator calculation because rarely would people put in perfect numbers into the Net Price Calculator. Also Net Price Calculators don’t include everything that CSS Profile includes.
@mom2collegekids I am sure we wouldn’t have been able to just hand them the printout and say, here… match this. I think what he was saying is they would do their absolute best to make sure a slotted student would get as close to their EFC as possible. As long as the data was inputted correctly into the NPC, if that number was better than the financial aid award that they would reconsider.
D3 school can give you one of their slots for support for admission but can’t/shouldn’t make promises about FA. I had a coach tell me she couldn’t discuss FA at all and that I needed to talk to the FA office. She would have had no idea If I’d entered $30 or $30k in savings on the calculator and didn’t want to know.
