I just re-ran the NPC for all the schools my daughter has applied to and all the schools that use the College Board’s calculator over-estimated her expected Pell Grant by about $1500. Just curious why this might be happening?
Are the net price calculators for year 2016-17? They might be based on a different year and calculate EFC too low, making Pell too high.
Every year the EFC formula is subject to change and the asset protection allowance last year was much higher for example.
Try the Collegeboard EFC calculator and see if it comes up with the correct EFC.
Your real FAFSA EFC may be including retirement contributions, so a higher EFC/lower Pell… The collegeboard may not not be figuring that.
All the schools she applied to that use the College Board NPC meet full need (or close to it), and are awarding her a full Pell Grant. I ran it on a school that doesn’t and the Pell Grant calculated correctly for that one. Maybe the full need schools are recalculating the EFC? It will be interesting to see how the actual awards compare to the NPC (Yes, I’m one of those people… have a spreadsheet ready to go).
If it’s your money it’s a good idea to be one of “those” people.
No retirement contributions (state employee with mandatory deduction) and no assets (not even equity in my home).
Also incredible differences in what these full need schools consider “demonstrated need”… Full Pell included at them all, but bottom line numbers (including work study and loans) range from $0 to $10,862 (which is more than a third of my annual income).
It certainly has been an interesting learning experience… particularly when my misconception that schools HAD to give you aid up to your federal EFC was corrected.
Are you a single parent. Does your child have a non-custodial parent? Of your child has a non custodial parent the net price calculator is not going to be accurate for your situation
Noncustodial waivers have been submitted where necessary. They have not all been reviewed, but the ones that have were all approved.
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Maybe the full need schools are recalculating the EFC?
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They can’t recalculate FAFSA EFC without a real reason using professional judgement. Since all the schools are showing full Pell on the NPC, that suggests to me that the NPCs are neglecting to ask something that in real life is causing you to have a higher EFC.
Your FAFSA EFC is what it is, unless there’s a very valid reason to use PJ to change it…such as you’ve lost your job or something.
What is your household count? Is it 3 or more?
If so, does the NPC distinquish whether the 3 are 2 parents/1 child…or 1 parent/2children. That can make a difference because the calculation is different when there are 2 adults in the household.