I find it annoying that schools show a total COA on their NPC’s but only weigh “need” against direct costs when it comes offer time. Why bother showing the rest then?
Amazingly, after merit awards, 4 schools met need for us. And in their mind full or almost full. With loans.
A 5th did give a grant. So 5 came down to our EFC. If EFC was direct cost only.
Add back in those non direct costs and I call it gapped. I will say in our case, the NPCs were pretty close on most.
That’s pretty darn low. I’d guess ~100% of new car and new home buyers turn down their top choices because of cost. Why, just today I turned down my top wine choice because of cost.
@bgbg4us I’m sure there are several threads on the topic of college costs/why are colleges so expensive and there will probably be a variety of viewpoints in each thread. The linked NYT article (roughly 2 years old) points a finger at increased administrative costs:
…a major factor driving increasing costs is the constant expansion of university administration. According to the Department of Education data, administrative positions at colleges and universities grew by 60 percent between 1993 and 2009, which Bloomberg reported was 10 times the rate of growth of tenured faculty positions.
Even more strikingly, an analysis by a professor at California Polytechnic University, Pomona, found that, while the total number of full-time faculty members in the C.S.U. system grew from 11,614 to 12,019 between 1975 and 2008, the total number of administrators grew from 3,800 to 12,183 — a 221 percent increase.
The rapid increase in college enrollment can be defended by intellectually respectable arguments. Even the explosion in administrative personnel is, at least in theory, defensible. On the other hand, there are no valid arguments to support the recent trend toward seven-figure salaries for high-ranking university administrators, unless one considers evidence-free assertions about “the market” to be intellectually rigorous.
WELL NO KIDDING!!! This whole game comes down to cost. It really is never about what you want it is only about what you can afford.
People need to expect to be full pay and only apply to those schools that are affordable as such. if it is a CC, then so be it. Aid is just not there for the average middle class family.
We fight and claw with admissions staff and FIN AID staff to try to fit a square peg in a round hole only to get frustrated in the end. And the funny thing is we all do this to ourselves. We must be nuts!
There is no way I am putting my second child thru this wringer. So many parents said to apply and see what they give you. Hahaha. Sure. Play powerball and see if you win.
For a lot of people, though, these factors are blurry–it’s often about what you want to afford. Many families could cut corners or make sacrifices, but whether they want to do so is, of course, their prerogative, and it’s totally fine to decide on the cheaper route rather than, say, risk some retirement savings or live a leaner lifestyle. This is very apparent to me having lived in Seoul for 15 years–here, it’s very, very common to see families (even extended families) make dramatic financial sacrifices to finance kids’ advanced education (which may make sense, as name value is a far bigger career requirement here than in the US).
Just as I could afford an S-class Mercedes, but to do so I’d have to make some sacrifices, so I’ve chosen a less expensive car.
For the vast majority of families in the US, that means that no 4-year college would be affordable.
Google tells me median household income in the US is something under $52K. College Board reports average cost of tuition & feeds to be College Board $33,480 at private colleges, $9,650 for state residents at public colleges, and $24,930 for out-of-state residents attending public universities. Tack on an extra $10-$15K for room, board, travel, incidentals and that means that “full pay” for most families means attending the local public commuter U, if they are lucky enough to live within commute range of a 4-year public U.
Financial aid is part of the process in the same way that mortgage lending is part of the home ownership process. If we all had to pay cash up front for the houses we live in, few could afford a home. Many people would have a hard time owning a car if there were no auto loans.
We almost didn’t consider the school my daughter attends because of the sticker price. It is WAAAAY too expensive, and if I’d only considered schools where I could pay full price, it would have been off the list immediately. But we looked into it as she was being recruited, I found out about some state grants, and we got out the pencil and ran the numbers. A thousand here, two thousand there, and we made it work.
She would not have applied if we were off by a lot, but at the time I thought I could make it work, and it has. If she loses any of the big financial awards, she’d have to transfer.
Many of my kids’ classmates applied to a wide variety of schools (including Ivies, top LACs, and top public and private CA schools) and were admitted but attended the state flagship because, when all of the numbers were on the table, it looked like a good deal to them. And it was. It’s a good school. We paid a slight premium for OOS private for S and, in retrospect, he’s not sure it was the right choice. Just because people have enough money to be full pay (or pay more), doesn’t mean they think the more expensive school is worth the extra money. That is different than not being able to afford it.
I think part of this comes about due partially to the cost of schools, but also because today we have a much more skewed view of what “first choice” means. In years past students would apply to far fewer schools and to a degree students would self select. Students would have more success getting into their “first choice” because their first choice was usually much more of a match academically and financially. Most of my friends 30 plus years ago applied to 1-3 schools, most were in state and most were public. We may have applied to one school which would have required significant scholarships. The idea of applying to 5,10,15 schools or more was foreign to us. Few of my friends had a dream school and fewer still considered one “elite” school let alone all of them. A college education was considered a path to a better future not an end to itself. Today it seems many students and parents (at least those who frequent CC) are likely to shop elite schools with idea of getting into that one special university. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that those special schools are likely to be unaffordable.
You never know what the FA packages is going to be until you get it in the mail. Lot’s of kids turn down their first choice because the FA package is not doable for their families.
I would think that “due to cost” doesn’t have to mean the cost is too high necessarily. When scholarships and aid come in, many opt for another college because the cost is lower and they can’t justify/find the need to pay more for X college over Y.
An applicant really has no idea about cost until they get accepted and see their financial aid. My daughter received merit awards (the largest awards the schools offer in two cases) from three east coast colleges which cover less than 1/3 of expenses. She received zero need based aid. I can’t justify the approx 15-20k per year difference to go to a private school vs. a California public school nor will I saddle her or myself with debt. We had expected at least some need based aid but are probably excluded due to high home equity. Combined we earn less than two teachers normally would and we are close to retirement. I probably should have anticipated 70k per year expenses but my mind can’t fathom the nunber. After all, 70k would pay for my wife’s two degrees and my three. Meanwhile our daughter has to learn to be greatful for her in state choices.
Just a comment on the OP’s title. Back eons ago most of us didn’t bother applying to so many schools because of affordability, even with scholarships, including National Merit. Now it is so easy to apply and delay the decisions until spring. With streamlined - Common App and online- applications it is so easy to consider places unlikely to be practical.
With net price calculators, it is not like you have no idea. It is true that actual financial aid can differ, particularly with unusual family finances, but the net price calculators can help determine whether a college is likely, possible, or unlikely in terms affordability before applying.
@ucbalumnus I would have to disagree based on the offers my daughter has gotten. Some schools are right in line with their net price calculator, or even less, others are 30k a year off. We literally had no idea what she would get until she had the offers in hand. I think some schools strive to have accurate net price calculators, and other don’t… they want you to apply, fall in love and try to make it work even though it’s wildly unaffordable… looking at you NYU. Their NPC indicates we should get good aide, if my daughter or her friends are accepted I’ll bet we get less than half what their NPC indicates.
NYU is one of the schools with the very limited NPC template that asks only for parental income in $10,000 ranges. With such limited parameters in the NPC, it should not be surprising if it were less accurate than NPCs that ask more detailed questions.