What is the purpose of – and the potential admissions impact of how one answers – this CSS data point: “Enter the amount your parents think they will be able to pay for your 2015-16 college expenses.” ???
This SR-160A (Student’s Expected Resources for 2015-16) query made me feel as if I was stepping on a land mine. I answered this question by citing the maximum dollar amount I felt we could “comfortably” contribute. Why should this question even be there, if the whole purpose of the CSS Profile is to determine this number, anyway?
But does inputting a lower figure than what a college calculates you could really afford possibly result in an admissions rejection? I wondered whether highly-selective colleges might have turned my son down in order to increase their enrollment yield – they deciding to reject him because we likely would turn down their acceptance offer due to our unwillingness to pay the full sticker price. If I were to put $60,000, could that have resulted in a different acceptance outcome?
I’d especially like to hear comments from those who have worked in private college admissions offices.
My opinion is that they will just gap your kid if you put a lower number in. I would not put my true max in. They won’t ding them for admission. I generally lowball the number (in my best sort-of-realistic FA fantasy, what would I have to pay?).
I think it could depend on whether or not admissions is need-blind, or if they look at your need in any way before they determine acceptance.
Highly selective colleges that are need blind won’t care. Not sure about schools that factor need in to admissions criteria - some highly selective colleges look at need only for international applicants.
As for the purpose on the FAFSA form - perhaps the folks who designed it were sadists?
And of course, at the need blind schools, the admissions office never sees ANY of the information on the CSS profile - decisions are made based on the admin application, not on the financial aid application.
Some schools’ FA offices may give an FA offer with a net price that is the higher of what they would ordinarily calculate or a number based on the answer to this question. Or the answer may be used in deciding whom to give preferential packaging or merit scholarships to.
So…why would anybody answer that question with anything other than 0? If the wording is what are you “comfortable” paying, ZERO would make me the most “comfortable!”
Consider a non need-blind but relatively selective school that likes to protect yield. The COA is 60K, you are willing to pay 50K and NPC shows something between 50K and 60K. Why not indicate that you are willing to pay 50K? Some schools like to give some token merit/finaid to increase the chance that the student attends and they can claim that they met full need. Your beloved NYU comes to mind.
Or you believe that your kid’s stats qualify him for 30K merit. Why not indicate that you are willing to pay the leftover 30K? You can even submit multiple versions of CSS Profile with different SR-160A amounts tailored to different schools. :-*
I don’t recall the question on the Profile. If it is a question that can be modified per school, I get it. But don’t most families file just one Profile? I am certain we only filed one at application time. And my answer to that question would differ greatly depending on each particular school’s value to us. If pressed for a single-answer-for-everyone, it’s likely I would have answered with a very small number as we were chasing merit. And, whatever we put did not affect any of our merit offers, happily.
But even under your scenario, assuming someone put they were willing to pay $50k of a 60k bill, giving that family a token merit/finaid would not entitle the college to claim they met full need. Only awarding the family enough money to cover the instution’s formulaic calculation of need would entitle the college to claim that. So the Profile question really is meaningless for that purpose. Although, it could be used as a tool to increase yield, I suppose.
Yes, it is possible for it to be used this way, though it is not clear whether any schools actually do.
For example, suppose the school admits in a need-blind fashion three similarly qualified applicants who come from families whose income and wealth produce a similar financial aid calculation. Let’s say that the school costs $60,000 and its financial aid formula would ordinarily calculate a $20,000 grant to give a net price of $40,000.
Suppose the students’ parents said that they were willing to pay $10,000, $35,000, and $40,000. The school’s financial aid office may realize that the first student is unlikely to attend in any case, but the second student may need a bit more money to be willing to attend, and the third student is likely to be willing to attend at the net price normally given. So the school’s financial aid office may decide to offer the second student, but not the others, an extra $5,000 in the form of a merit scholarship or preferential packaging.
“But even under your scenario, assuming someone put they were willing to pay $50k of a 60k bill, giving that family a token merit/finaid would not entitle the college to claim they met full need. Only awarding the family enough money to cover the instution’s formulaic calculation of need would entitle the college to claim that.”
Colleges can and do calculate the need any way they want. Their super secret formulas are highly adjustable. For example Cornell can match Harvard’s financial aid offer and do not blink.
Many moons ago my son got a 7K merit award (and a Likely Letter) from NYU. Back then I was very inexperienced so I did not understand all these details but they probably fully met our need with this scholarship. It was still too expensive for us and he did not attend.
My husband is working on the CSS now. He too was flummoxed by this question. A) Isn’t that the reason we’re filling out this form, so they can tell us the answer to this question? B) Why wouldn’t you just put 0? Our friends said their financial adviser said to put 10% of your take home pay. I’ve been researching this for over an hour and haven’t found any solid info. online. My hubby said this question was optional for all the schools we inputted from our daughter’s list except Skidmore. Another head-scratcher is the mysterious world of paying for college.
@twogirls $20,000 is the approximate cost of state schools, but is that what you would be paying out of your income? Or would only part of it be coming from your income, part from savings, part from the student, and part in student loans, etc.? @thumper1 That’s interesting. What is the purpose of the question do you think? I think our EFC is approximately $30,000/year. But that doesn’t mean $30,000 is the answer to that question. $30,000 would likely be part student loan, part work-study job, part student self-pay, and the rest the parent contribution presumably part of which comes from income and part from savings.
I agree that this question is tricky to answer. I was also scratching my head. For those of you saying it has no bearing on your financial aid amount…that isn’t the OP’s concern. The concern is will it affect the decision? So, if an elite college feels you can’t afford it, will they reject you? That is my concern. I low balled it, hoping for more scholarship from the second tier schools, but the top tier might reject us now.