Do these EFCs make sense?

Paying for College
1

<p>My dad just did the financial aid estimators for Princeton and Brown, two of my top choices. The Princeton one turned out very favorably, with an EFC of about 13k and a grant of about 43-44k. The Brown one was not nearly as good, with and EFC of about 27k and a grant of about 28k. </p>

<p>I know Princeton's aid is certainly superior to Brown's, but do these kinds of disparities in aid make sense? I read that Princeton's average aid package was about 40k (making mine slightly above the mean), while Brown's is about 36k, making mine well below the mean. My dad used the calculator on Princeton's website for princeton but Brown just sent him through the generic college board calculator, if that makes a difference.</p>

<p>I can realistically afford about 20k at most. My family's income is about 100k. Is this kind of disparity in aid packages from Princeton and Brown typical?</p>

2

<p>My understanding is that Princeton need based aid is more generous than Brown. Brown requires the Profile. Princeton uses its own financial aid form. Both require the FAFSA.</p>

<p>There have been many reports here of large differences in need based awards from meets full need schools. Some of these have been quite large.</p>

<p>Remember, each of these schools has its own formula for computing need based aid. Each school has a different endowment amount. There will likely be variations in the awards,from,school to school.</p>

3

<p>I’m not too surprised, P generally has more generous FA than B. </p>

<p>Six years ago, the year before HYPS changed their FA policies for mid/upper income families, P offered us about 15k in grant & WS, while B said that we had no need at all.</p>

4

<p>HYPS give Super Aid, so their numbers will be very different from other “need met” schools. so, yes, the numbers sound right.</p>

<p>Since getting into those top schools is very difficult, and your family has an unaffordable EFC, be sure to apply to some schools that will give you large merit for your stats, so that they remaining costs are below $20k per year.</p>

5

<p>I’m OOS, so the sticker price for UNC is about $45k for me. I need to get that number down to 15-20k after financial and merit aid to really be able to afford it. My income bracket is ~100k, so I’m hoping for some need-based aid. Can I reasonably expect my final price to be in this range?</p>

<p>No, your price wouldn’t be in that range unless you somehow lucked out and got one of UNC’s rare huge scholarships.</p>

<p>Ok…you dont’ seem to understand how merit aid works. You don’t get FA down to your EFC, and then get merit to reduce your EFC. </p>

<p>Merit gets applied directly to NEED first. So, even if you got some merit from UNC, it would go towards need, and then your family would still have to pay their EFC…unless you got huge merit from UNC, which is doubtful since UNC doesn’t give much merit. </p>

<p>YOU need HUGE merit so that it will cover ALL of need, and then CUT INTO EFC. For example:</p>

<p>$45k = COA</p>

<h2>$30k = EFC </h2>

<p>$15k = need</p>

<p>If UNC gave you a $10k per year merit scholarship…</p>

<p>$45k COA
$10k Merit Scholarship</p>

<h2>$5,500 Student loan</h2>

<p>$29,500 would be what your parents would have to pay.</p>

<p>However, if you applied to a school that would give you big merit</p>

<p>$40k COA</p>

<h2>$25k merit scholarship </h2>

<p>$15k would be the amount that your family would pay. You’d be cutting your parents’ EFC almost in half.</p>

<p>I see that you’re a NMSF. You’re going to have the SAME problem at USC. They’ll give you a half-tuition scholarship, BUT that will get applied to NEED only…and USC doesnt’ give generous aid. So your parents’ contribution will be at least $30k…probably closer to $35k with an income of over $100k. Did you do the NPC on USC’s website? </p>

<p>You need to apply to some schools that will give you huge merit for NMF status as back ups.</p>

6

<p>Brown takes into account the equity in the primary home while Princeton does not. This alone can cause a big difference in your finaid package. Bown meets need with loans for over 100K earners while Princeton meets need with grants.</p>

7

<p>Shouldn’t EFC all be the same? My income is 130K with a bunch of dependents- at some schools my EFC is like 25-30 but at Kenyon College it was around 12K.</p>

8

<p>Your FAFSA EFC will be the same everywhere, but private colleges require more financial info than FAFSA does and use that information differently. Each school has a proprietary (meaning private and unique) method for computing need based upon the financial data provided.</p>

<p>And to make it even more complicated, some colleges will include a merit award estimate as part of the NPC calculations.</p>

9

<p>Shouldn’t EFC all be the same</p>

<p>NO… FAFSA EFC is the same, but that doesn’t mean much.</p>

<p>However, the schools give the best aid use CSS Profile or their own forms, They use their own formulas.</p>