<p>I would like to know if you are anonymous when using a net price calculator or whether the college will try to figure out who you are? Some of the calculators I have done ask for very little info - so no concern there. Others ask you to fill in the student's first name and zip code - why? I just did one that asked me to fill in the student's high school? </p>
<p>Obviously when one actually applies for FA - they know your identity. But when using the calculators - I am just gathering info and do not necessarily want the college to "recognize" me. For those of you who work in Financial Aid - what is the real deal on this? Are some colleges trying to figure out who you are? Do colleges look at the information that is input into the calculators? I have not seen this question ever addressed and would appreciate your insight.</p>
<p>I just did the one for Knox College and they as for all the student information ( full name, high school, etc). I just skipped it, hit next, and started at the next page. It still gave a result. Their npc even tells you what your monthly loan payments woud look like if you borrow all the unmet need.</p>
<p>I’ve filled in dummy info when so asked.</p>
<p>I have as well - filled in a fictitious name - but I am wondering why these calculators ask for this info and what the colleges intend to do with it.</p>
<p>Colleges probably figure you are interested in the school, so they will use the name and address and mail you tons of information, including financial aid, scholarship info since you may need it if you are using a calculator to begin with. I am sure it is for marketing…everything is!</p>
<p>But they don’t ask for full name and address - just a few clues - like first name and zip code. I feel there should be some disclosure on the calculator website as to whether they are going to try to determine your real identity.</p>
<p>I have read on CC that certain areas of the country get rated, or credited for a certain amount of income toward cost of living expenses. Maybe this is why zip code comes up on the calculators. An expensive zip code would give a different number than a less expensive zip code in the final calculation.</p>
<p>I was able to get a response from the university that asked for the high school - they said that they simply wanted to collect data on which high schools had interested students - and were not trying to identify individual students themselves. That makes sense to me.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t take that response to the bank, if you catch my drift. I like the suggestion of filing in an accurate zip with fake names.</p>
<p>It may also be that they ask for zip code so they can provide a more accurate transportation cost estimate. One NPC we used estimated $100 for transportation cost. That low amount raised my eyebrows, until I realized that they knew where we lived and it’s only about an hour and a half drive away.</p>
<p>*One NPC we used estimated $100 for transportation cost. That low amount raised my eyebrows, until I realized that they knew where we lived and it’s only about an hour and a half drive away. *</p>
<p>It would be interesting to do it again with a different zip code.</p>
<p>I also wonder if these NPCs are going to cause some schools to see a drop in applications. I imagine that a good number of publics, who don’t give much aid to OOS students, might see a drop in apps once people run the numbers and see that despite having a good amount of “need”, they’ll get little.</p>
<p>Agree with you 100% - had these calculators existed 3 years ago - S1 would never have been allowed to apply to Michigan - what a waste of money that application was!</p>