Hi,
I recently ran my family’s numbers through William’s NPC, and the numbers are looking good. However, now I’m wondering whether the Net Price Calculator of a school’s financial aid will be a very good indicator of the actual financial aid package.
For straightforward financial situations, i.e. most income from wages and salaries, the NPCs should be fairly accurate. For schools that require the CSS profile or their own financial aid form in addition to FAFSA, the NPCs won’t be as accurate for those who own a business, are self-employed, have rental properties and so forth. There are tax deductions that reduce AGI in those situations that may not be allowed by schools for financial aid purposes.
It depends on the college and on your circumstances. Some of the personal circumstances that might affect the accuracy: divorced parents, large assets, self-employed, business owner, rental property owner, etc.
If your circumstances are pretty straight forward then NPC’s can be very good indicators. If you own a business or have a complicated family situation it can be off. Not all NPC’s will estimate merit awards so it’s good to look into what is offered and if your a good candidate.
The NPC was very accurate for us- within $50.
Hm, thank you all for the help! My family does own a business, so I guess I’ll have to see how that works out.
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It depends on the college and on your circumstances. Some of the personal circumstances that might affect the accuracy: divorced [or never married] parents, large assets, self-employed, business owner, rental property owner, etc.
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^^ Very true! Do any of the above apply to you?
Williams gives super aid, so their results can be more favorable than most CSS schools.
How does Williams compare to other top LACs in terms of aid? Amherst, Bowdoin, Carleton, etc. My parents don’t want to run too many NPCs because they’re assuming that most of these will have similar financial aid.
No…Williams is unique.
they should run Carleton and maybe Bowdoin to see the different results. And if they’re very different, then run Amherst.
Your family owns a business. The net price calculators will not be accurate.
oh!! yikes…
What kind of business does your parents own?
The NPCs will NOT be accurate for you since the CSS schools will “add back in” deductions.
The colleges will not necessarily be the same on he NPC. Amherst and Williams especially have larger endowments.
I’m not 100% sure of the specifics, so I’ll report back once I get an idea. However, my family income is < 100k for a family of six, with everything taken into account - I’m not sure how greatly the business will affect the calculations.
Since NPCs are inaccurate in these cases, are there any other ways to get a good estimate of resulting aid? I know a lot of schools promise free tuition for students with < 100 or 125k incomes, but I’m not sure what is meant by ‘usual assets’.
The “with everything taken into account” is the problem. A college will likely add back in things that are deducted as business expenses, and the determined value of the business may be considered shockingly high. The NPC’s normally do not ask enough details to get the same answer the full-blown CSS profile will get.
Oh, I see! Thank you for the explanation on that. Is there a way to fill out a CSS profile before actual application time? I know FAFSA has something similar, but I’m unsure about CSS.
The reason I’m looking for a comprehensive calculator is because my parents are very difficult about sharing details about our family’s financial situation, and so they insist on filling out the paperwork themselves, whenever possible. So, it will be difficult for me to gauge the real effects of owning a business since I don’t know the actual numbers involved.
FAFSA goes by a formula. If you input the correct numbers into the FAFSA you will get an EFC for federal aid at all schools. Some states will have aid based on FAFSA alone too.
The profile is just a form that collects financial info. Each school will have it’s own formula to apply to the collected info and treat each entry on the profile in their own way. So the NPC at each school is the closest you’re going to get as far as a forecast and you’ve learned that with an owned business, it’s accuracy is in question.
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The reason I’m looking for a comprehensive calculator is because my parents are very difficult about sharing details about our family’s financial situation, and so they insist on filling out the paperwork themselves, whenever possible.
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The fact that your parents won’t share these details, and then you say that the income is less than $100k, means that likely you dont’ know the whole story.
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my family income is < 100k for a family of six, with everything taken into account
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That is likely not true. What kind of business is this? Businesses have business deductions. Your parents’ reported income is likely not the same as what a CSS school will determine it to be.
What kind of business?
What kind of tax form is used to report to the IRS? (Schedule C on your parents’ 1040, 1065 Partnership return, C Corp, S Corp would be the common choices)
How many non-family members are employed in the business?
Does the business (or your parents) own any real estate associated with the business?
If your family wants financial aid, they are going to need to either personally, or through you, get a lot more involved with actual financial data. It quickly gets complicated when there is significant business ownership.
The other key item is understanding how much home equity your parents have, and if they own any other real estate and whether they have any investments outside of specific types of retirement accounts. I’ve encountered a number of families who have chose real estate as their means of retirement investments, and they’re typically pretty unhappy to learn how that is treated in financial aid.
Thank you @annoyingdad on the clarification on the CSS Profile! I’ve always seen information about the FAFSA, but the CSS always seemed like an after note to it. I had no idea it was just a profile of pertinent information (though now, looking back, I probably should have guessed) instead of a calculation.
@mom2collegekids, though I understand the reasons behind your assumptions, it is not the reality. My parents have historically been unhappy about letting us kids know more than we have to about their side of things, be it on medical issues (which has come up a lot in recent years, after several diagnoses that seemed to have come out of nowhere), relations with extended family, or yes, the financial information concerning my household.
Their mentality seems to be that they want us to be worrying about these things as little as possible, and because they don’t want us to mention anything to our friends (I remember getting yelled at for having my lunch card for the free lunch program in plain view, back in middle school.)
Their view toward college financial aid is that there really isn’t much they can do to change how much we qualify for, so there’s no use for me to worry about that. What I’m trying to do is get an idea of how much is not covered by grants so I can seek out scholarships if need be - though even that may be tenuous, because I know outside scholarships often equals less financial aid from the institution.
@arabrab, thank you for the list of pertinent information! I probably won’t get my parents to give me any detailed answers, but they’ll probably take a look themselves when I tell them what the CSS Profile looks at.
Is that $100,000 income their net income, their adjusted gross income, or their gross income?