We are in incoming family and I am reading alarming reports that Northwestern has a habit of decreasing financial aid significantly after freshman year even that financials do not change that much. Some are saying up to 60% more than what they were paying the 1st year. Please tell me about your experience as this is my worst nightmare. We are at the top oF our budget now (with loans) for the 4 years and counting on a single digits increase each year but definitely not 40 to 60% more!
I’ve read this about Rochester too.
Do they meet need all four years (they say).
Talk to them as to why.
And don’t go anywhere that is outside your budget. Don’t even consider.
Don’t forget, you might change not significantly - but that word is different to different people. And someone may go over an income cliff that brings you to a new level vs. need - or lose a sibling or anything else.
You should talk directly to NU financial aid about your concerns. And game plan different scenarios directly with them.
Other people’s situations aren’t necessarily yours.
Good luck.
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I haven’t heard this about Northwestern. FA packages are based primarily on income and assets, so sometimes people say they didn’t have a change, yet their reportable investments had another year of growth, to take one example.
Run the NPC for 2027-28 now (your Kid’s soph yr) and take a screenshot of the results. Your 2025 income is baked in, make your best estimate for assets at the time you will complete the CSS profile. I am assuming the NPC is updated for 2027-28 and is accurate. Was it accurate for you this year?
I agree with Tsbna you can chat with the FA peeps, but just be clear on what you are going to say, and how you say it.
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I also haven’t heard of any bait and switch for financial aid at Northwestern.
COA has increased about 3 1/2% per year the last few years.
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This is a great idea. I will run the NPC for this year. We do t have any second homes or anything like that so it should be very comparable. Many people in Reddit and Facebook are commenting on these changes so I am a little scared .
Let us know how the NPC turns out.
I would encourage you to ignore Reddit and Facebook, we just don’t know the veracity of any of the claims.
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You are mistaken. In fact, my understanding is that the opposite is happening at Northwestern University with significantly more generous financial aid due to the 568 Presidents Group lawsuit settlement.
OP: From which source have you heard/read these unfounded rumors ?
Northwestern University is now one of the wealthiest universities in the nation (top ten endowment fund) and among the most generous for need based financial aid.
Northwestern University’s 2024-2025 endowment fund was the 9th largest in the nation behind Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, MIT, U Penn, Notre Dame, & Columbia. Then Northwestern followed by JHU, WashUStL, Duke, Emory, Cornell, & Vanderbilt.
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Do you have a source for this? I have not heard this, nor seen changes to the NPC, nor have heard current students reporting more generous aid.
I do know NU, like some other 568 President’s club schools, has paid out settlement money to qualifying former students. But that’s not the same as increasing financial aid across the board.
It’s the result of the 568 Presidents Group class action lawsuit & settlement.
Increasing need based aid was specifically not part of the 568 settlement…the agreement focused on compensating past students (2002/3 thru 2024) and did not include changing institutional aid formulas going forward.
Has NU changed its need based aid formula and/or income cut offs to your knowledge? That would obviously be info OP would like to know.
If they did change their formula, it wasn’t because of the settlement.
From actual parents who are reporting this and asking if more parents have found themselves in the same situation and indeed some report that this is happening.
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Thanks. I would definitely advise that person to speak with the financial aid office, they are the only ones who could explain what happened.
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FWIW, I’ve heard absolutely nothing in Evanston other than funding challenges for grad students last year.
If this was a common occurrence, the Daily Northwestern would be all over it.
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Stats for most recent CDS year are below:
- Freshmen – 100% Need Met, 43.5% Receive FA Grants, Average Grant Award = $66k
- Other Undergrads – 100% Need Met, 42% Receive FA Grants, Average Grant Award = $66k
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I think a lot of parents who DON’T have any issues like that don’t post about it and don’t want to make others feel badly about their aid being adequate and having no problems. My daughter is heading into her senior year and her aid has remained the same, in fact, increasing with tuition increases. I know a few other parents who said the same thing to me, just not publicly. Our FAFSA income (the income that is two years prior to each school years’ FAFSA application) didn’t change. Assets went down (because we are using it to pay for college). Daughter’s own assets remained the same. The only increase was in 401K, which isn’t counted. We have no other investments. We got the same aid for my daughter’s junior year, even though my son graduated from college earlier that year. We are smack dab middle class (maybe a little lower than middle), if that helps with comparison. FA has covered almost all of tuition for us every year.
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You misunderstand/miss a major point of the class action lawsuit regarding price fixing under the 568 Presidents Group cartel like coordination.
The point is that the price fixing denied eligible financial aid recipients the full amount of need based financial aid expected under the existing financial aid formula. Essentially, the class action lawsuit alleged that the collusion among the 17 universities placed artificial limits on need based financial aid awards.
No changes to the formula were required; however, applying the financial aid fairly without artificial restraint is a result of the lawsuit.
If I understand correctly from the post, your son is an incoming freshman at Northwestern University, right? If so, I think you will get more firsthand answers if you post the question to the NU parents’ page on facebook.