<p>So I was running some numbers in the financial aid calculators in Ivies and other top universities, and it seemed like those that used College Board's financial aid calculator had far lower estimates than those with their own program. </p>
<p>For comparison I used the ivies For an income ~$150,000. Those that had their own calculators included Yale, Cornell, Princeton, and Harvard. These ranged from an EFC of $5000 to and EFC of $25,000. The rest were taken from College Board's calculator and ranged from $40,000 to $55,000. </p>
<p>Is there really a big disparity between these school or is it that College Board underestimates financial aid from these schools?</p>
<p>While it definitely varies with family situation, HYPS tend to be more generous than many other schools, even those that are considered generous.</p>
<p>Just my personal experience, but D1 was offered 25k/yr in grants & WS while Amherst, Brown and Dartmouth offered no FA. The difference between the cost of attending Y and Pomona for D2 was over 20k/yr. YMMV.</p>
<p>The aid packages you would be offered would vary just as much as these calculations. I wouldn’t say one set is more accurate than the other, I would say that they make different calculations, based on the information given. You might notice that the Ivies ask more questions, because they use the CSS Profile to determine eligibility for their institutional aid. In general they are more generous, but they will also take more factors into consideration. There will be some families where the ivies are less generous than everyone else - based on the information they gather on the CSS Profile, or through their own financial aid forms.</p>
<p>We don’t make $150,000 a year, but we make enough to have some real disparities in aid packages. We found the NPC estimate to be pretty accurate for each of the schools where our D was accepted. Not perfect, but they lined up in the same order.</p>
<p>The trick with the most generous schools is getting in, so you qualify for their aid.</p>
<p>Yale, Princeton and Harvard give “super aid,” so their own NCPs will likely be more accurate than CB’s calculator. </p>
<p>That said, who knows if the HYP calculators will give good estimates if the student’s family has any special circumstances, such as divorced parents, self-employed parents, etc.</p>
<p>Does CB even have college specific estimates? I thought the calc just used an institutional methodology. How much FA is expected is still different depending on the schools cutoffs and how much they put toward FA. HYP are the most generous because they have huge endowments.</p>
<p>When I go to the NPC on D2s school website, it links over to the CB website; I just assumed all of the schools did this?? I know that there’s a function where you can have your information saved and run NPCs for several schools.</p>
<p>The CB used to have a one-size-fits-all Institutional calculator, I just looked and they have a general EFC calculator.</p>
<p>I haven’t looked at any of the Ivies but every NPC I have checked (about a dozen) … whether the C/B one or a unique one … all come back with almost the exact same number … our EFC > COA … and almost matches exactly the figures in the EFC chart I posted a couple of days ago.</p>
<p>With $150,000 of income, I doubt it and if a parent would not count on it. Even if, and it’s a big “if” one of the elites claims to charge 10% of income you’re talking about a minimum of $15,000 and that’s if there are NO assets. Call me jaded…but…</p>
<p>@momofthreeboys The EFC of $5,000 was from Yale (I don’t expect to get in) and the calculator was filled out with all of the information taken directly from tax returns. Obviously I wouldn’t trust any schools estimations until you get an actually offer, but it is possible.</p>
<p>??? an EFC of $5k? with an income of $150k? That doesn’t sound right unless there are several kids in college and you’re going to HYPS. </p>
<p>HYPS schools, which give super aid, have an EFC of about 10% of income. So, they’d expect your parents to pay $15k per year if you have only one child in college. If you got a $5k result with one child in college, then you probably made a serious mistake.</p>
<p>^^It doesn’t matter because i highly doubt you’d get Yale for $5000 with any net price calculator with income of $150,000 without some circumstances you didn’t share or a mistake. For planning purposes the old mantra of 25-30% of your annual income is usually pretty close.</p>
<p>I was skeptical as well, so I gave it a try and was surprised with the results. Yale is even more generous than I had believed.</p>
<p>Two married parents who each earn $75,000 and live in Ohio with three children all in college and $10,000 of medical expenses but no assets (no home equity, no savings/checking, etc.) results in an EFC of just under $2,000.</p>
<p>Anyway, my understanding is that College Board uses formulas directly from each school’s FA office. Actual numbers vary simply due to how data is interpreted. Theoretically, there should be no difference in accuracy between schools, although a college-run site would get updated more quickly.</p>
but every NPC I have checked (about a dozen) … whether the C/B one or a unique one … all come back with almost the exact same number … our EFC > COA … 
and almost matches exactly the figures in the EFC chart I posted a couple of days ago.</p>