I’d ask NEU directly. Email or better, call the financial aid office. They meet d’s full need albeit including loans but that’s not unusual.
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Professional judgement is used when there are circumstances that are not reflected well on the financial aid application forms. I’m not sure this would apply at all in this situation.
The OP absolutely can inquire about the financial aid award and ask the school to check for accuracy. This absolutely should be done.
But even the OP says that with the correct numbers (which apparently are the ones on the Profile but we’re not on the first NPC done) the award is very close to what the NEU net price calculator said it would be.
It sounds like the initial net price calculator done by the OP had the lower family contribution amount. But that woth the corrected numbers…the ones actually on the Profile…the family contribution on the award matches.
What would be the basis for a professional judgement, redneck?
Re: asset protection…we don’t know if there is or isn’t asset protection. We don’t know what other assets the OP might have…some savings, for example. The asset protection amounts on the FAFSA have gone way down in the last few years. They are almost half what they were when my kids were entering freshmen. Plus…this is for FAFSA. Profile schools can have any formula they want.
I agree with AD. In reality, there can be a $12,000 difference in financial aid awarss between two schools that both say they meet full need…I’ve heard of $20,000 differences. So a $12,000 difference (which the OP now says really isn’t a difference…since she put the correct numbers in the NPC) could easily be attributed to the school formula.
And again…the OP says…she corrected the numbers on the NEU NPC, and her award closely matches what the NPC says it would be. So, I’m not sure what the issue is here any longer.
Unusual may have been a bad choice of words. The thread is a little confusing, early posts seemed like it may be a parent posting, most of them seem like the student. Post #2 says no assets, no self-employment but I don’t know if that’s the student or parent(s). So, I don’t know if we know about the parents assets, self-employment, owning a business, having rental properties and things like that. And some schools seem to be known for defining need in a way that has a higher family contribution than most schools that claim to meet need. USC comes to mind.
With a $7900 EFC it’s even possible the AGI on the fafsa was just under $50k and qualified for the simplified formula.
I’m unclear whether this $7900 was the “EFC” from the NPC with the inaccurate numbers…or,whether it was from an actual FAFSA filing using 2014 tax return numbers.
The OP said clearly that she had changed the amount owed on the house to the correct amount on the NPC, and NOW the financial aid award and NPC numbers are very close.
The original post says the $7900 was the fafsa EFC, though it may be that was from an estimated fafsa submission.
@annoydad I think everything is based on estimated since I don’t think the parents have filed taxes yet.
If NEU has a policy of no asset protection and/or a policy that heavily assesses parent assets (more than say 6%), then their policy isn’t going to be liked by a lot of folks.
this is how I look at it…a family with a $7900 FAFSA EFC with one child in college and modest home equity and no other assets is a family of modest means. To think that having them pay $20k per year is “meeting need” sounds nutty to me.
Hopefully, there is an error in there somewhere and aid will be greater.