<p>College offered X in aid after we submitted CSS Profile.</p>
<p>Ran the college's NPC calculator, and came up with X--almost exactly the same amount as actually offered. </p>
<p>The NPC is bare bones compared to the Profile.</p>
<p>It asks how many sibs are in college, but unlike the profile not how much they cost.</p>
<p>And there are other data the NPC doesn't consider that are in the Profile.</p>
<p>I looked at a couple of other school's NPCs, and they're similarly simple. </p>
<p>So I'm concluding, based on this small sample, that at least some finaid offices run your data through their calculator and don't look much at the minutiae. Maybe they give the minutiae a once over for red flags. </p>
<p>And the best scenario is to send only your favorite child to a high-priced school, and the others to community college, because you're not going to get a break on the amount you spend on them. </p>
<p>Depends on the college. Different colleges use Profile data in different ways. Some NPC formulas are more complex than others. Some colleges have a lot more FA money to distribute than others.</p>
<p>While Profile does ask the cost of another child’s college, I can understand why some colleges ignore that. Why would Child #2’s college want to give you more aid just because Child #1’s school is expensive? Sending Child #1 to a pricey school was a luxury choice. Why should that cost Child #2’s school more money (to help you pay for Child #1’s tuition? I can understand that reluctance for many schools that don’t have big endowments)</p>
<p>This is a top full-need lac with one of the larger endowments, so I don’t think their relative ability to fund finaid is the issue here. </p>
<p>My understanding had been that EFC was a global number based on actual college costs not simply a count of the number in college. </p>
<p>My point is that the NPC amount was the same as the actual award, which was presumably based on the more detailed profile. </p>
<p>YMMV</p>
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<p>Profile may be more detailed, but that doesn’t mean that a particular school uses all of those details.</p>
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<p>Exactly.</p>
<p>It used to be pretty consistent, at least from what I could see, that colleges meeting full need using PROFILE would take the parents expected contribution, multiply it by .40, if there was another kid in college. Some adjustments if it were a community college or tech type school, but otherwise it didn’t matter what the cost of the college was or if that kid got any fin aid from that school, or was on scholarship there. Now, I’m hearing that these questions are being asked and adjustments are being made accordingly. Doesn’t mean it’s every school, but I’m hearing that this is happening more.</p>
<p>This can work in your favor. I have two in college, but one has almost a fully funded year (at least this year). The EFC does count that child as an expense, so the child who is closer to full pay gets the benefit of her EFC almost cut in half. It did really work in our favor this year. Child number two considered a military academy, and if she had gone there, child number one would not have benefited.</p>
<p>It is rather interesting that for all the questions they ask, all the claw backs in income, they don’t ask how much you are actually paying for those other kids in college.</p>
<p>Well, the issue could be family income/assets…</p>
<p>To give a more extreme example…if a family had an income of $800k and $2M in non-protected assets, then when they fill out the NPC or CSS Profile, they’re going to get a “Family Contribution” of $65k (assuming that is the COA).</p>
<p>BUT…if they add 2-3 students in college, they’re STILL going to show a family contribution of $65k because their real “EFC” is probably $300k…lol</p>
<p>There was a Cornell family that posted a couple of years ago. For Child #1 they were full pay. BUT, they wrongly thought that when Child #2 was accepted to Cornell that their cost for each child would be 60% - 60% . No…they were still going to be full-pay for both. The parents were upset and called for further explanation. They were told that because of their income and assets, they were full pay for two students at Cornell because the calculation indicated that they could afford to pay $120k per year. Obviously the family had a high income and likely lots of assets (or maybe a business). </p>
<p>So, those with a high profile who are full-pay for Child #1 should NOT assume a 60-60 split for an additional child. There may be no split at all.</p>