<p>And you used the NPC on UF’s website and came up with low numbers? </p>
<p>I have to admit the calculators weren’t very accurate for me (NOT UCs). By the time three left I had already gone through the process with one and two and had a very clear picture of what numbers to put in the calculators and I had seen quite a few finaid letters. In my case the calculators were wickedly low and I knew it so basically ignored them. My EFC is also in the >$30000 range. I used the calculators to rank order the colleges from least cost to highest cost and hoped that the financial aid offers panned out that way - for the most part they did plus or minus the small merit scholarships that some tacked on. It’s the ‘grant’ money that is all over the place and I suspect it is because if the college does not claim to meet need it’s a variable cost that is discretionary…sorta like those pie charts that colleges put up showing what families “might” pay. </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids
Yes I went on UF’s website. I just rant it again and here’s the final numbers without giving too much info:
AGI $153,000
Estimated Federal pell grant $4,695
State Grant $5,534
Institutional grant $1,123
Estimated total grant/gift aid $11,352 </p>
<p>Sure this is right! lol </p>
<p>That is very odd. The only thing that would make the Pell possible is if you had 4 kids in college at the same time. Maybe 5. </p>
<p>Maybe someone else here can run something similar through the UF website and see if they get a similar package.</p>
<p>I only put 1 going and a 14 year old son at home. The NPC from CB is crazy! It did the same with Penn.
That or my computer is biased</p>
<p>For Florida: </p>
<p>(I assumed Florida resident, 4 in family, 1 in college, oldest parent born 1970, 150k income and literally had 0s for everything else)</p>
<p>
<a href=“http://gyazo.com/2ea60133c54a52a1aace7a940d5a0ceb.png”>http://gyazo.com/2ea60133c54a52a1aace7a940d5a0ceb.png</a>
</p>
<p>Is it possible that you’re accidentally making your child independent with one of the questions? When it asks: “What is your marital status?” under student info are you perhaps selecting “married”?</p>
<p>Nope, he’s living at home with us. Yes he qualify for the highest bright futures. But mine is wicked!</p>
<p>It never asks for AGI. Only income from wages etc. and interest/dividends. </p>
<p>OP, are you sure you’re not putting your AGI in answer to this question: </p>
<p>How much were your parents’ total income adjustments? (Not their income or Adjusted Gross Income (AGI).)</p>
<p>Without that I got results similar to romani. Putting a large number in answer to that question it gave Pell.</p>
<p>I think the numbers I put up make perfect sense when you consider that the grant is an academic scholarship (I went through, put in a much lower GPA and SAT and got 0 in gift aid).</p>
<p>You know what? Thank you everybody but my numbers don’t add up, and when I enter #s I follow every detail and help and use my IRS return. But who cares now, it’s just a matter to wait. I’m ok with FL numbers, I knew it. I was wondering because Penn was giving me WAY odd low numbers too. And he’s being accepted to UPenn. That’s the one I’m concerned. Thanks</p>
<p>Anyone want to run the UPenn NPC on the CB site? I agree with annoyingdad. Something is being entered that is taking income down to a Pell eligible amount.</p>
<p>OK…looks like this kid has a likely letter from UPenn. </p>
<p>OP, you have already submitted your FAFSA. You know Pell eligibility is based on that FAFSA EFC, and you are not Pell eligible. </p>
<p>Are you putting in business expenses or other significant deductions on the NPC? There is something being inputed that is reducing your income to Pell levels.</p>
<p>At least you KNOW not to expect this! </p>
<p>In about a month you will have the actual financial aid packages. Just wait and see.</p>
<p>I did the UPenn CB NPC and got reasonable numbers I think. COA - 62350, grant/gift aid - 27773, net price - 34577, self help - 3300, remaining cost - 31277.</p>
<p>I used 153000 income, household 4, 1 in college, no income and $100 assets for the student. The UPenn NPC has the same question about total income adjustments as the UF one. I put $1000. </p>
<p>OP, all the income questions on the UPenn and UF NPCs should add up to what you have on line 22 of your 1040. The adjustments to income question should be what you have on your 1040 line 36. Subtracting 36 from 22 equals your AGI which you said is 153,000. But the NPCs don’t ask for AGI outright at all.</p>
<p>I am also wondering about the accuracy of the NPC on CB. Heeding advice we received here and elsewhere, we encouraged our D to apply to those schools we thought we could afford based on the estimates gleaned using NPCs. Her top choice is UVA School of Architecture. We are oos, NJ. She was accepted into the honors college at NJIT with nearly full ride. It is our only state school that offers a Bachelor of Architecture. 2 very different schools and programs/degrees. She was also accepted to RPI with partial scholarship. The NPC on NJIT (does not use CB) was pretty spot on, but the NPC for RPI was about $10,000 off. I have run the NPC on CB for UVA multiple times and I keep getting a number that just seems way too good to be true. Is it really possible that a family income in excess of $250000 would receive what NPC calls grants of around $28000? When I fiddle around with the numbers, the only thing that seems to budge that grant number is adjusting the amount in savings. We are eagerly awaiting the UVA decision/offer but I’m now worried that I eliminated some schools based on a faulty NPC. I don’t see a lot of discussion on this board about NPC that are so wildly off base, so a small part of me wants to believe that she could possibly recieve a grant for 20, 25 or even 28K. Wondering what others have found.</p>
<p>@Mom0819
I’ve being wondering the same, CB NPC are way off in my opinion and is misleading parents to where to apply based on FA.</p>
<p>I just ran the UVA CB NPC with $250,000 income and it showed no grants. Used nominal numbers for some of the other questions. Used family of 4, 1 in college. With 2 in college seeing about $6k in grants. Seems like some fundamental error is being made in using the CB NPCs.</p>