<p>PROFILE can be very hard on business owners in ways that make no sense. This has happened time and again with those who own businesses. The NPCs do not work well for most such families, and I would recommend those in that situation to actually have a sit down with a financial aid office at a school that does meet full need, uses PROFILE and get an actual pre read done based on prior years earnings, right up front, if the family cannot pay full freight to such a school. To run a bunch of calculators, including the FAFSA and come up with costs that are not going to be relevant for most all PROFILE schools can cause a lot of problems for the college list. I know families whose kids are top students, great stats who regard schools like Lehigh, Smith, BryMawr, as safeties so they did not bother to apply to less selective schools. They may well be right that their kids are cinches for admissions but if they are business owners and are expecting anything close to what the NPCs are telling them, they had better get those numbers confirmed with a school, or they may find their kids accepted to a nice list of schools but be unable to afford to pay for them I 've seen this time and again, with usually one safety just tacked onto the list because the GC insisted on it and that is the school the kid ends up having to attend for affordability reasons. </p>
<p>The NPCs can create the wrong impression for any number of reasons. They are NOT necessarily accurate if there is merit and if the school does not meet full need, and if there are any unusual situations on ones tax returns or if you are a business older, the numbers can be way off. I ;ve known some families whose kids lost their awards when the tax returns where verified because they revealed things that are not asked on PROFILE directly, and are not definitely things to have to list, but show up on the tax returns and when the school investigate further, concludes that they are worth money and will reduce aid as a result. The awards are not always final until the final examinations of returns are done. Sometimes families do get away with such things but if there is something “different”, unusual in your financial dealings, do be aware that it may be evaluated in a way you don’t expect by financial aid offices.</p>