<p>This will not be captured in the calculators, and can lead to an unpleasant surprise as it leads to large increases in income. And you won’t know until your FA package comes.</p>
<p>Very true. People who have income that is not typical income from a job will likely have unpleasant surprises. Also, those who have “business deductions” often have these surprises.</p>
<p>Income that is not from a job is often calculated differently because that income doesn’t have FICA and other earned income deductions. It is calculated more harshly.</p>
<p>However, even if all/most of your income was from a job, you still CANNOT think that NPC results are “close to final”. NPC results often give “best case scenarios,” which often do not happen because schools run out of certain aid early (SEOG grants, Perkins loans, etc).</p>
<p>Also, unlike much of high school aid, college aid usually includes LOANS and work study. So, while your child may get an FA package with $10k in aid, that aid may be nearly all loans and work-study…little or no free money.</p>
<p>Your FAFSA EFC may be somewhere in the $18-20k area (or more). So, that means that your EFC is way too high for any federal grants. (EFC must be about $5k or below for federal grants). </p>
<p>You may be misunderstanding FAFSA. Schools don’t have to do ANYTHING with your EFC except see if you qualify for federal aid (which isn’t much and you don’t qualify for grants anyway). </p>
<p>That means that unless your child attends a school that has a lot of its OWN dollars to give away, you will likely be gapped big time. </p>
<p>If your child is a strong student and has high stats (high test scores and high GPA), then include a few schools that will give LARGE merit scholarship for stats.</p>