Do individual colleges actually give the amount of aid FAFSA suggests? For instance, if FAFSA said our EFC was 20k and the total price of the college is 50k, can we expect the college to actually give us 30k? (I understand that this is why we use the NPC). If not, would the college ever give more (in the case of particularly good financial aid) or less? When people say that NYU is stingy and Princeton is generous, do they mean Princeton gives more than the FAFSA EFC says you need and that NYU doesn’t give what you need?
Sorry for asking so many questions, and thanks for the help!
Schools are under no obligation to make the COA=EFC.
Princton is a meet-full-needs schools. There are not all that many of these schools. In general, these schools will provide enough financial aid so your EFC=COA. (But how each schools determines the EFC varies).)
Other schools that do not claim to meet full need may or may not do this. For instance NYU often “gaps” people which means that the COA=EF+$ the schools does not award.
Most colleges do not meet need, so NO, most individual colleges do not actually give the amount of aid FAFSA suggests. Those colleges that do meet full need do not usually rely on FAFSA - they will have their own additional form that needs to be filled out that will delve deeper into the financial situation. “Need” is defined by the college, not by you or by FAFSA. Colleges don’t generally give more than your need, unless there is merit aid involved (and not always then, because merit can reduce need). The most generous colleges tend to be those that are most difficult to be admitted to.
Thanks everyone! Since you’ve said that meeting all demonstrated need would just match the EFC, why do places like Princeton have separate NPCs? Can’t you just use the number that FAFSA (EFC) gives as an indicator of what you would pay at Princeton? That makes me think that Princeton’s calculations are slightly different than those of FAFSA.
No. You should regard EFC as the absolute bare minimum that you will be expected to pay – even at schools that promise to meet full need, since THEY get to decide what you need, not you.
Most private schools (maybe some public schools too) use the CSS Profile (Princton has its own process). The CSS profile asks for a lot more info than FAFSA. Some schools include a % of home equity in the EFC calculations and they all will consider savings. Schools figure the EFC in different ways. The EFC is very institution dependent.
HYP have the reputation for being more generous than many schools to upper income families. This may be what you are confused about.
If you are a senior who has applied to schools, this info is already past due. Most people are finalizing their 2015 taxes for submission and verification of income.
No you can’t. Most (if not all) schools that meet full need require the CCS Profile or their own financial forms. They use these forms to calculate what THEY feel your EFC should be. Each of these schools has a different secret formula for determining the EFC. In most cases, it will be higher than the FAFSA EFC since they will consider assets and other factors that the FAFSA EFC does not look at.
FAFSA EFC can really only be used to determine what federal aid you will get. Beyond that it has limited value since most schools gap.
The most generous schools will also use the CSS Profile and/or their own formulas. FAFSA is just a form that contains your info, which schools use in their own calculations – rarely (never?) do meets-full-need schools stop at what the FAFSA says your EFC is.
The FAFSA EFC and demonstrated need aren’t the same thing.
The only thing the FAFSA EFC tells you is whether or not you qualify for a federal Pell grant. If your EFC is 0, you qualify for a full Pell grant (currently ~$5k/year). If your EFC is ~$5k, you may qualify for a Pell grant of a few hundred dollars or you may not qualify for any. Filling out the FAFSA also allows you to take out the guaranteed federal student loan (~$5500/year). Run the FAFSA4caster to see if you may qualify for a Pell grant.
Colleges will award whatever Pell grant you qualify for because it’s a federal entitlement, but any other money they offer is at their discretion. Some give guaranteed merit based on SAT CR + M scores (or a particular ACT score) and GPA. Others give need based aid, but they determine what your need is.
The college Net Price Calculators can give you an estimate of what your costs will be unless your parents are divorced, own a business, or own a farm. If a college uses the CSS profile, they consider assets (home equity, etc.) that other colleges don’t. After you run the FAFSA4caster, go to the website of every college you’re interested in and run their NPC. That number will give you an idea of how much the school will cost your family. (College NPC’s generally take the Pell grant into account, so the result you get is likely the minimum you’ll be expected to pay).
Ohh okay I just didn’t understand if the FAFSA EFC trumps all or if the CSS Profile carried more weight or the individual school’s opinion. I’ve turned in all financial aid information but I guess I should probably explain my situation for understanding’s sake. I got into Yale and our income is just below 200k; the FAFSA says our EFC is about 45k but my parents would prefer not to pay that much so I’ll probably not end up going to Yale. The total price of Yale is 65k, so is there any chance that Yale would give us more than 20k? Even 25k would help a lot more than 20k. I realize that this decision is not up to us and that they determine need but right now I’m just hoping that a miracle happens and we’ll be able to afford it. So what I understand from this thread is that the EFC is close but not the final word, and maybe Yale would see our CSS Profile and give us a little bit more than 20k or do their own calculations and think that our EFC shouldn’t be 45k, right?
What did the NPC for Yale tell you? The individual colleges’ NPCs generally reflect their own aid policies. The CSS schools take that detail and run it through their own formulas to determine your “need.” The “meet full need” schools will only give you the amount they decide you “need.”
Remember, it’s not just income; non-retirement assets also matter. If there’s something non-vanilla about your situation (own a business, self-employed, divorce, etc,) the NPC is usually off.
If you got into Yale, didn’t they give you an initial aid package?
Did you use Ya;e’s net price calculator? IF you applied and was accepted SCEA, did you receive a financial aid offer from Yale?
As others have stated, the only thing that the FAFSA does is determine your eligibility for federal aid (Pell grants). At some schools your FAFSA EFC may be the least that you have to pay.
Yale gives very generous financial aid, where your parents may get aid making a little less than 200k , where they most likely will not receive need based aid at most other schools (exceptions probably being Harvard & Princeton).
Yale’s calculator asks a lot of questions. I would recommend that you sit down with your parents and run the numbers so they can determine Yale’s affordability.
Just ignore the FAFSA EFC. It is meaningless in for what you are trying to determine. Run the net price calculator. I hope you have other affordable options if your parents won’t pay your cost of attendance for Yale.
I’m pretty sure we did the Yale NPC a while ago, but I don’t remember what it gave us so I guess I’ll do it again.
I don’t think we’ll get any sort of miracle but I’m just hoping haha.
I was admitted SCEA but the application said that you didn’t need to complete any financial aid information until March so I just didn’t bother with it in case I didn’t get in. In hindsight I probably should have done it, but I just finished along with all of the other RD schools so I guess I’ll probably have to wait until April like everyone else.
@intparent They said they would prefer anything under 35k so I’m trying to get outside scholarships (to no avail). And they’ve said if it’s 40k for a place like Yale then it would be worth it to stretch and go there, but I don’t want to put a financial strain on my family and I would like to go to medical school so I guess I’ll just wait and see what the cheapest option is and where I would be okay with going. I do have other affordable schools on my list so everything will turn out okay in the end, it’s just that Yale has been my dream school for so long and I want to figure out a way to make this work.