<p>I'm interested in people's experience on the accuracy of the cost estimators for the following schools:
Stanford,
Princeton,
Dartmouth,
Vanderbilt</p>
<p>These give very different results for similar inputs. I realize that they use different calculators and have different endowments, and therefore can offer different levels of aid. But would love to here just how accurate they are from people who have used the estimators and subsequently been offered aid.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>The problem with attempting to assess the accuracy of NPC’s is that the results are quite likely dependent on the individual’s situation. A family with only wage income and basic assets may find them all quite accurate, whereas a family owning a small business, a trust fund, and multiple rental properties may find some or all not very accurate.</p>
<p>From personal and 2nd-hand experience, the Vandy and Princeton NPCs were very accurate, but in both cases with relatively straightforward family finances.</p>
<p>They give different results because each school calculates institutional need using that school’s formula. Also, if either parent is self employed or owns a business, and/ or the parents are divorced…those net price calculators won’t be particularly accurate.</p>
<p>Surprisingly for my inputs they are all quite similar (±$2.5k). I cannot attest to their accuracy.
FYI - My wife just left Cornell’s FA office and the FA rep said their NPC is very accurate.</p>
<p>I understand that different schools would offer different amounts of aid for given financial situation. And that the same school would offer different aid for different financial situations. What I’d really like to hear is, for people who used the cost calculators and whose children were subsequently admitted, how closely did the actual aid offer match the cost calculator?</p>
<p>My DD and DS did not apply to any of the 4 schools you call out, but I can say our results varied. Schools ask for such disparate info on their NPC’s, and some ask very, very little. After awards were out, a few schools matched quite well on the merit aid front, but most schools were not as generous as their calculator led us to hope. I think the calculators are using past-year data sets, which aren’t likely to be programmed to take into account factors like number of current year applicants, and the strength of their apps. My advice is to count on little and have great safeties, both for admission and cost!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Why would these change FA projections? Unless increasing/decreasing enrollment, colleges like the ones the OP listed have relatively consistent entering class sizes from year to year. I’m not sure I understand how the strength of the candidate field would affect need based FA.</p>
<p>OP,
I didn’t run NPCs for the schools you listed, but a couple of years ago when I compared Pomona’s NPC and the FA package we received, they were within a couple thousand dollars. The actual FA package was better than the NPC result. We have very simple financials: salary based income, home equity, other assets. </p>
<p>Be careful to check that the tuition and R&B allocations are up to date in the NPC, they may be lagging behind a year; this may not matter, as higher tuition may be compensated with higher FA. Also, be aware of the estimates that schools use for books, travel and personal. When I used the NPCs, Pomona included $900 in the cost for travel, while CMC added $300.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt’s financial aid package matched the NPC nearly to the dollar. When we had a change in circumstances, we received a revised package and it also matched the NPC with the revised numbers. Duke’s offer also matched the NPC.</p>
<p>My point is that if a school has an unusually high yield this year, say, then next year’s acceptance reigns a
May need to be pulled a little tighter. Also, if more students accept offer of admission than the school intended, the school has to come up with the promised FA for more students than they intended to pay for (and of course they also collect more tuition and fees). But we had this situation arise, and the school cut back to correct the balance. But I am glad to hear that several of you got what was projected!</p>
<p>We have a small business, no w-2s, a home underwater, and otherwise normal assets, with two kids to be in college next year. As others have noted, unless all you have are w-2 wages, all bets are off on the accuracy of the calculators.</p>
<p>That having been said, Princeton and Vandy came very close in FA to the calculator. Dartmouth was a joke - it offered 1/10th of the Vandy and Princeton offers. Dartmouth’s offer was way way less then its calculator showed.</p>
<p>If parents (or students)
<p>the calculators tend to be very inaccurate. If you’re a very vanilla family, they (especially for the schools you mentioned) tend to be pretty accurate.</p>