<p>My son applied to Chicago, Penn, Columbia </p>
<p>I did the net price calculators for each and they all came out EXACTLY the same.</p>
<p>Exactly.</p>
<p>To the dollar.</p>
<p>No difference.</p>
<p>Exact cost of attendance, self help, EFC etc.</p>
<p>What gives? I mean I guess it can be explained by the fact that the schools are comparable etc. but EXACTLY?</p>
<p>There are a group of schools that purport to use the exact same methodology. So on a short form estimator, they should come out exactly the same. The problem is that you can’t go by that because people who have applied to those very same schools have found that their aid offers vary, sometimes greatly. There is a lot of wiggle room in there when the details are added. </p>
<p>Chicago, for instance, will take whatever a student has as assets that initial application year, and keep that amount as the baseline on which expected student contributions are calculate for the rest of the time the student is there. </p>
<p>I personally know kid who applied to at least two of those schools and got better awards at one over the other, so I know that the final results can vary.</p>
<p>NPC are a brand new thing, not a lot of feedback on how accurate they are, although from reports the NPC seem to be * much more generous* than actual finaid packages.
After all the schools want to * encourage* more students to apply, not discourage them!
;)</p>
<p>That’s interesting, CPT. Chicago contacted us and asked how much of child’s 529 we expected to use during the 2013-14 school year. I wonder if that’s part of the student assets part you were talking about.</p>
<p>“Please note that our calculation divides assets for a first-year student over all four years of college attendance.
You may choose to use all of your assets in your first year if you wish, but we will not adjust the asset expectation
for the following years”.</p>
<p>This is from UC’s financial aid handbook. Basically, they expect a student to use every bit of their assets for college. The student work expectation over the summer is about $2K a year, increasing each year.</p>
<p>I don’t know how the other two schools calculate expected student contribution. I know someone who got into UPenn and Brown, and I remember the package was very different just last year. I also know a number of U Penn and UCH acceptees. it is amazing that there is such differences even in the full need met schools. </p>
<p>I guess UCh takes their merit aid out of the NPC formulas, which is good. I’ve done some numbers where merit is in there and of course there is no guarantee anyone gets a dime of it. Some schools will ask for test scores and gpas and can hone in on merit that way. But NPCs are not necessarily accurate. One has to remember that when looking at schools and get those financial safeties in place, in case there is something you are missing in the process, that will involve not getting an award you might think you will get. Owning one’s own business, trusts, distributions, property, all can be valued different ways.</p>
<p>Stupidly we disclosed the 529 account even though it is held by his grandparents and didn’t have to be disclosed. C’est la vie.</p>
<p>But that’s good to know, actually because we were wondering what would happen if we used it all up year one or held it until year 4.</p>