Accuracy of Case's NPC

I ran the information through Case’s NPC, and it estimated we would receive $38,000 in University Gift Assistance. Seems like quite a bit compared to what other universities are offering. Anybody know how accurate this might be?

what is NPC?

Net Price Calculator. Each school has one. Answer questions about scores, GPA, income and they give you a rough idea of how much aid you will get.

My package was accurate to the NPC. Case gives a lot out in aid and grants.

Case’s philosophy is that if you are admitted, there should not be any need gaps.

It doesn’t seem very accurate to me.

My daughter got a scholarship that represents only 50% of what the NPC said she would get. And that resulting total price is for just tuition and room/board is still $12,000 OVER what the unrealistic FAFSA says we can contribute.

I think the problem is that our family has four kids, all with college savings in their 529 plans. Even though we pointed out that only 25% of this money is available to my daughter (her account,) I think maybe CWRU thinks I can raid her siblings’ accounts to pay for her college. As the money in their accounts was either earned or given to each child personally, there is no way it’s ethical to steal from one kid to give to another.

I hoping they will come up with a little more money to fill in the gap, because we can’t afford the cost of attendance otherwise.

I spoke with the financial aid office. Basically, for us it boils down to:

  1. They think our income is high enough that we can take out lots of loans for college expenses and pay them back over time.

  2. They think our home value is high enough that we can take out equity line funds.

  3. They are counting all four kids’ accounts as available to our current student, even though the money in those accounts belongs to those siblings and taking it would be stealing from one to give to another

For us, the gap between what we can actually pay and what they THINK we can pay is pretty significant. It’s definitely a problem for those of us in the middle. The lower income students get practically a free ride, and the upper income students can afford to pay. That leaves those of us in the middle in a bad spot.

@vamom4 Sorry Case is not looking like an affordable school for your daughter.

I think once your second, third and fourth child start, then the EFC will be divided in half or 1/3 for Case.
So once you have overlap years, the costs should go way down IF you then qualify for financial aid. But you have to reapply each year to every college each child attends to see if you qualify for financial aid in subsequent years. It
does make sense to save money if you are unsure of how financial aid will look, or what sort of financial package the second (3rd and 4th ) child will be awarded.
Financial aid at some schools like Princeton, Vanderbilt, and a few others is way more generous than others, its not uniform, but Case Western is reasonably generous with middle class families, and for us, the least expensive private option our son got accepted to.

@coloradomama This IS our second child starting and we will have two in college for the next three year. Case came in $12K OVER our EFC for this one child.

I think if your family has a decent income, it DOES make sense to save regardless, because what I have found is that the colleges don’t really care too much about your savings. They seem to care more about your ability to secure large loans, even if that means sacrificing any financial health you have built up. (Our FAFSA number was almost identical with or without the savings included) You are expected to drain all equity out of your home.

When I mentioned to the Case financial aid person that perhaps we should have saved less so that they wouldn’t be asking us to steal from my daughter’s siblings, the aid person stressed that no, it was good we had saved, because if we hadn’t, we would be ending up with a similar net price (based on income and home value) and just be in a worse position of needing to borrow more.

So, overall, my daughter will likely not be able to attend and the sole reason will be the huge price tag. We are just not willing to take out huge six figure loans so that they can take that money and subsidize other students at our expense.

@vamom4 I agree you must go to a college within your budget. Its hard to save for college, and many families are in your shoes. For some two income families, private schools become affordable. Very poor students at the best schools cannot afford TO EAT FOOD! So its a total lie that poor kids do well, they have to steal food to survive. Its now documented that because very wealthy universities are not giving students enough money to eat, we have students who cannot afford to EAT at Princeton and Yale today.

A few students get better merit packages making Case less than SOME other out of state choices. In Colorado, the cost is about the same as Case with the scholarship, as our in state costs are over $30K a year for U of Colorado Boulder. Cleveland is less expensive to rent an apartment than Boulder Colorado, so for us it worked out to be the same price. We did not look at less expensive options like U of Wyoming or U of Nebraska Lincoln or U of Oklahoma. Lots of Colorado students go to those options for less than our in state costs.

Now we could have sent kids to Colorado State in Fort Collins for less than Case Western. Its a budget decision.

Case has always offered 50% discount on tuition and housing for summer. This is a great discount for nursing students since they allow nursing students in their final year to do their capstone or preceptorship during the summer. In the last couple of years the size of the nursing class has doubled - so I’m assuming as an incentive, Case is offering any nursing student who begins their senior year in the summer, the same discount in the fall as well.