<p>In the FAQ thread at the top of this forum, there is a post that says" Use the online finaid calculators as they will give you an ESTIMATE of your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). These will NOT give you an estimate of your finaid award. There IS a difference."</p>
<p>Is this referring to the net price calculators? The net price calculators do come up with an EFC, but they do it by listing the amount that the school will contribute through grants, etc, right?</p>
<p>For the most part that is true. The general thought is the more info asked for in the NPCs (like grades, scores) the more accurate they will be. For schools that require the CSS Profile, all bets are off for small business owners.</p>
<p>The net price calculators can also be iffy in situations where there is substantial unearned income, business ownership/expenses, and non-custodial parent present (for schools that use that information).</p>
<p>Net Price Calculators use averages. So if you are using one at a college that gives no merit aid, and gives everyone 100% of need, and your circumstances have nothing unusual, they are very accurate. Otherwise they are not. To take an extreme example, if half the school gets merit awards ranging form $10-20K, and the average is $15K, your NPC can say you may be getting $15K which all of the numbers averaged out. But you could be getting a big fat zero, or the $20K or anything in between in such a case. Because there are even more variables usually involved with schools that can give a student 0- to more than what then need when a school does not always meet need, and gives scholarrships up to a full ride, the average means nothing when it comes to any individual running his case through such a calculator. I like to say, it’s like having your head in the icebox and your back side in the fire, and someone saying you are very comfortable overall. </p>
<p>The usual rule is that the higher you are in the pool of students a school accepts, the better your chances that your need will be met and that you get merit if the school gives it. Even schools that do not guarantee to meet need, usually give some kids a full need package, and sometimes that school can give you the best deal, especially if generous scholarships are in the picture and you are a top pick for them. </p>
<p>Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is the term that FAFSA uses for what it considers a family with a certain financial profile should have to pay but other than its use for cut off for PELL and whatever aid programs that also use that number, and for eligibility for Direct loans, both student and parent, it has no guarantees. Don’t know a single school that guarantees to meet EFC terms. Those that guarantee to meet need calculate their own expected contributions usually with PROFILE which is more extensive and inlcudes more places where a family can have assets/income (NCP, family businesses, sibling accounts, home equity just to name a few).</p>
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<p>SOME NPCs just spit out averages. Many are much more precise.</p>
<p>The more information the NPCs ask, the closer the estimate, but the more variables in there that are unaddressed in the info asked, the less accurate they will be.</p>
<p>I’ll pass along the two big lessons we learned this year about Net Price Calculators. </p>
<p>(1) If you use the calculators in the fall, be sure and revisit starting in mid-January.</p>
<p>We felt comfortable in November-December with the estimate in large part because we had a very straightforward financial situation, so very few “risk factors” that might affect the estimate once we actually completed the FAFSA.</p>
<p>In January (after applying) after plugging in our actual EFC (very close to the earlier number) we were surprised to see the results on the calculator change. The explanation we heard from the financial aid office was that the college’s net price calculator could only be updated at certain times of the year, and that in early January this year’s guidelines had finally been loaded, reflecting changes in both merit and need-based aid.</p>
<p>(1A) Notice the fine print on the estimate page… some of ours indicated that the COA was based on 2007-2008 figures!</p>
<p>(2) If the calculator asks for data such as SAT/ACT scores, rigor of coursework, and GPA don’t forget that 2 of these 3 are open to interpretation and thus may affect merit. Whatever you, your student, or even your student’s guidance counselor believe is the rigor of the coursework, the admission folks will decide. More important is the risk when converting GPA to another scale. Again, admissions will do their own math and arrive at the college’s own version of converted GPA, and will offer merit using their own data.</p>
<p>It’s sort of like “demonstrated need” - it’s whatever that college says it is.</p>
<p>Additionally on the net price calculators for the SUNYs I have seen it give crazy numbers for the loan amounts. </p>
<p>Also look at the amounts they quote for books, transportation and other expenses. Sometimes they are spot on while other times they are way off. </p>
<p>Also at first glance the school may look affordable because they are giving work study (once again I have seen crazy amounts), but remember this needs to be earned first and really wont make a dent in most tuitions.</p>
<p>And yet, fwiw, my kiddo was accepted at three schools last year and every single one gave us a better package than predicted in the Net Price Calculator. And I’m self-employed.</p>
<p>After I finished Fafsa I reran all the calculators for the schools my son applied to so I can compare them to the real thing when they come in. Just a mini experiment, our situation is very simple so we’ll see how close they are.</p>
<p>RunsWscissors, I (and many here) would love to learn what the results of your experiment are! I am running net price calculators, and think we can make it work, but then I read stories of others who also thought they’d get enough aid to make it work, and it didn’t work out as they hoped.</p>
<p>Duke’s aid package is dead on ($700 less) with respect to the NPC calculator. We are immensely grateful for the admission DS3 received this afternoon.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt and Duke packages came in almost identical to the NPC!</p>
<p>We ran across a situation where NPC showed merit aid but did not receive any. School explained that it was based on previous year and they had much stronger applicants this year. So beware on the merit aid scholarships for a rising private that doesn’t keep their NPC updated.</p>
<p>My small sample experience is that the calculators are more predictive of need blind/need based aid schools than those that offer merit aid–particularly among CSS Profile schools.</p>
<p>My aid packages for the school I have received a package from and ran their calculator for was pretty accurate, including merit aid. However I’ve heard people say that some schools gave double more, of half as much, or whatever. I think that there are two things that could help rectify this:</p>
<p>1) Don’t trust the College Board’s calculator. It’s the same questions regardless of schools, even ones that CLEARLY view need differently (Wellesley vs. Clark, for instance)</p>
<p>2) Re-run after you get your actual EFC</p>
<p>For three private schools, they underestimated by about $4000, from differences in merit aid and from using 2012-2013 prices. I just reran his top choice which has next year’s prices in and it was spot on. The public schools were of course accurate because we knew we wouldn’t qualify for any need aid from them. I think it is easier to look at it the numbers optimistically when the actual decision is months away, so the same numbers look scarier now because they are real, especially any loans. The annoying thing is the FAFSA 4caster (or whatever it’s called) was $4000 off as well, and our financial situation is very straightforward.</p>
<p>I have found the College Board’s Calculator to be extremely accurate, for both FM (federal methodology) and the IM (institutional methodology). </p>
<p>One thing a Net Price Calculator cannot do for a private school that uses “preferential packaging” is accurately measure your outcome. With preferential packaging the students at the top of the applicant pool will receive more grant dollars, less loans etc. For applicants who are in the middle of the pool or who just barely squeaked into the school, their financial aid package will be less attractive. </p>
<p>One school that is very honest and up front about preferential packaging is Muhlenberg College ¶, you can view it on their FA website “the real deal on financial aid.”</p>
<p>Thanks for all these tips. SluMom, I found the Muhlenberg info very helpful. I’m just getting my head around this CFC thing. It’s a shocker.</p>
<p>I just ran mutiple NPCs in college board. The net prices from some of schools such as Duke and Wellesey are not realistic unless they put significant merit-based scholarship information. Is it just a trick to get more applications ? Of course, I hope not since my D seriously considers these schools.</p>