<p>I have a few questions concerning net price calculators:
1.) Which price should I be considering to be true? Many calculators have two different numbers: net price and out of pocket cost. Which one should I be going off of?
2.) My parents are separated but we still all live in the same home due to financial issues. Their income is very misleading to our actual financial situation and they will be contributing hardly any money to my college, will this be conveyed when I file my FAFSA?
3.) How accurate are these things?</p>
<p>(1) Don’t know what you mean by net price vs. out-of-pocket cost.</p>
<p>(2) What you’ll be expected to pay for college depends on your parents’ income and assets. Whether or not they choose to contribute to the cost of your education will have no impact on what you’ll be expected to pay.</p>
<p>I don’t know what it is about your family income that’s misleading . . . but suffice it to say that no one cares that you have a lot of bills to pay. (The exceptions would be expenses for a special needs sibling, or exceptional expenses due to a medical crisis or natural disaster.)</p>
<p>(3) The net price calculators are generally accurate unless a parent is self-employed or owns a business.</p>
<p>Thank you.
For the first question on some net price calculators (not the college board’s) there is one number given for your “net price” then another number that factors in student loan and student contribution through work and that number is your “out of pocket cost.”
So I’m not sure if I should take the out of pocket cost into consideration because sometimes the difference will be almost 20k and that doesn’t seem right.
Thank you for the info about question number two–it’s very frustrating to me that my EFC is based off of my parents’ income when they will not actually be contributing… Oh well!</p>
<p>Okay - got it! You should be looking at both net price and out-of-pocket cost, although, for the time being, the “net price” is probably the most important number. Figure that you’ll be eligible for the same loans wherever you go, and your summer earnings will be the same wherever you go - so the number that really counts is the net price. If that’s more than you’re able to borrow and/or earn . . . then you have a problem.</p>
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<p>You’re not alone! And if your parents’ income makes you ineligible for need-based aid, there’s not much you can do about that. You should look at schools that offer merit aid - unrelated to need. You can start here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-7.html#post15895768[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-7.html#post15895768</a>
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<p>And there are many other schools that offer smaller merit awards.</p>