When to run EFC calculators

thumper1
Tue, 25 Nov 2014 16:00:57 +0000

Artie, the best time to run the NPCs for the actual schools your kiddo is interested in is AUGUST/September of his senior year. The NPCs get updated annually for each admissions round. Certainly, you can do them now to get a very rough estimate, but policies change, and the NPCs do sometimes change from year to year…so what you get NOW (which is for the 2015-2016 school year) might not be the same as what will actually BE for the 2016-2017 school year.

If you do the NPCs in early September, you should have a pretty decent idea of your 2014 income…which is what you will use for 2015-2016 need based aid calculations. Use the best possible estimates.

Are there business expenses deducted on your taxes? If so, this might render the NPCs inaccurate. Some schools add back in some business expenses. And if you are self employed, all bets are off. Ditto if you own real estate other than your primary residence. The NPCs work best with regular w2 form income.