<p>I just used Duke's net price calculator in duke.edu.
Compared to results from other colleges, the Duke net price is extremley low.
Since merit-based scholarship is rarely available, the applicant's academic scores and ECs shouldn't be a factor.
So, is the low price from Duke estimation a trick to attract more students to apply ? Or, is the price relatively accurate (; within +- 15% range) ?</p>
<p>My award was relatively straightforward. I don’t remember my experience with the NPC, but the parent contribution was basically the FAFSA EFC (+two or three hundred dollas), plus the loan, work-study award, and summer contribution. The award in general fell in line with the rest of my schools that met need (of course, if you’re comparing from schools that don’t meet need, that’s a different story).</p>
<p>Purpleacorn, thanks for sharing your experience.
The Duke NPC result on my D’s case is too good to be true.
I will more rely on FAFSA EFC available in January. (I expect that it will be almost full price tag w/o merit-based scholarship.)
Wish my D get a merit scholarship.</p>
1 Like
<p>Dad2013: No trickery, whatsoever. The objective of Duke’s NPC is simply to illustrate quantitatively that undergraduate studies at a university of Duke’s statute can be a good deal more affordable than “urban myth” suggests.</p>
<p>When you say “too good to be true,” are you talking in terms of peer institutions? Is the parent contribution significantly less than a FAFSA EFC?</p>
<p>My Duke NPC also seems “too good to be true”.</p>
<p>When I did the NPC for similar institutions like WashU, Rice, etc the school grant turned out to be about half of the cost of attendance. (Which isn’t nearly enough in my opinion, since it’s way than I believe I can afford.) When I did Duke’s, the school grant for me was ~$55k. That’s about $25k higher than at other schools, which seems very strange since I used the same numbers at all schools. It did not list a parent contribution or anything, just that it was school grant/gift aid. I’m hoping that’s what I would get if I actually were to get into Duke, but I just can’t see how it could be possible.</p>
<p>The Duke NPC doesn’t make sense since all of applicants get the full ride. I think the NPC has a best case including full ride scholarship. Duke should median number in the merit scholarship not to confuse applicants. So, pls don’t rely on the NPC at this time.</p>
<p>Dad2013-- Are you sure? I just ran it, and it was slightly better than my original award, but definitely wasn’t a full ride and rather in line with my current situtation (and packaged with loans, work-study, etc. which wouldn’t exist in a merit scholarship). The “Duke University Scholarship” is not a merit-based award, but is just the grant aid. I would call Duke FA tomorrow and express concern that the formula may be broken somehow, somewhere. Duke wouldn’t include merit money in the NPC because, again, probably less than fifty students in an entering class of seventeen hundred receive them.</p>
<p>I would be VERY surprised if NPC has any merit money involved. There are just a few merit scholarships at Duke and NPC does not care whether you would be considered at all.</p>
<p>If everyone is getting a full ride, then either your numbers are wrong or NPC is wrong.</p>
<p>Dad2013 it is pretty accurate. Duke tends to have very generous financial aid as they have one of the largest endowments in the nation. And not everyone gets a full ride. When I ran the calculator I did not get much. But I still got more than compared to most other schools.</p>
<p>I checked with Duke F/A office this morning. They gave me no clear answer but asked me to check with college board where I ran the NPC. No matter what it turns out, my D will apply for Duke, expecting generous scholarship.</p>
<p>Dad2013 - I’m very familiar with Duke’s FA policies and working with the FA office. Let me add a few pieces of information that will hopefully provide a little more clarity for you.</p>
<p>First of all Duke’s NPC provides information on need-based aid ONLY. Duke has a VERY limited number of merit based scholarships (AB Duke, Robertson) that are completely separate from their need based aid. Don’t be confused by the fact that Duke (and many other schools) use the terms “scholarship” and “grant” interchangeably for the need-based grants that they award, and that you will see in the output of their net price calculator.</p>
<p>Duke’s NPC should give you accurate information but, as with anything, it’s totally dependent on the accuracy of the data that you input. If you have a very straightforward financial situation - you are a “W-2” employee, have “normal” types of assets, the NPC should give you a pretty accurate read. Keeping in mind that the formulas are VERY weighted towards income, a good rule of thumb is that your EFC will be about 25-35% of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). Now, if you have a more “non-standard” financial situation - ie, you are self employed, own your own business, have a second home or rental property, are divorced and there is a non-custodial parent - the NPC’s may not be very accurate at all.</p>
<p>There have been a few comments about the FAFSA EFC. Keep in mind that that is ONLY used to determine eligibility for federal aid - Pell grants, Stafford Loans, and work study. CSS School only use that information for doling out federal aid, not their own institutional aid. You shouldn’t use the FAFSA EFC to estimate your potential financial aid from a CSS School. There are so many other factors that are considered (home equity, non-custodial parent financials, etc) in the CSS aid computations that they often will very widely from the FAFSA EFC</p>
1 Like
<p>Dukedad, Thanks for the info. Your staement looks right. But the Duke’s current NPC doesn’t look right. Anyway, my hope is the limited merit-scholarships for my D. If Duke doesn’t give her a merit-scholarship while HYP gives her an admission, she will go to HYP or else.
By the way, I like your userID.
Wish I can change my userID with dukedad II.
:)</p>
<p>FWIW, dd is a freshman at Duke. Our FA package was slightly better (a few hundred dollars) than the NPC predicted. Duke was definitely more generous than other schools to which she was accepted.</p>
<p>However, our situation is one that the NPC works best for - married parents; W-2 wage earners with relatively stable income; no side business or rental property; assets commensurate with income; no unusual recent significant expenses; etc.</p>
<p>thanks for the info, dukedad and rmldad</p>
<p>" Keeping in mind that the formulas are VERY weighted towards income, a good rule of thumb is that your EFC will be about 25-35% of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)"</p>
<p>I think its wrong to based EFC on 25-35% on AGI, Most of the cases a parents real take home income is 60% of AGI, that means a parent should be ready to pay almost half of their take home income to college Tuition if EFc is 30% of AGI…</p>
<p>All Schools should consider things like ( Insurance, Mortgage, Food, Transportation, Gas, Clothing, Utility bills too)…</p>
<p>EFc should be 10-15% of AGI rather then 25-35%…</p>
<p>Absolutely I agree with you but it’s only our wish. :(</p>
<p>Remember that FA offices expect families to pay for tuition from past (savings), present and future (loans) income. This expectation means that if your family income is currently in the $60k-$150k range, they assume that you should have been putting aside a thousand dollars or more every year. The calculations are based on a family’s estimated ability to pay - not its willingness to pay (or save). Incorporating expected savings in the numbers likely brings EFC closer to your range of 10-15% of present income.</p>
<p>If a family had been saving faithfully for years but had an unforseen catastrophe wipe out those savings, I would assume that the FA Office would be sympathetic and respond accordingly. Similarly, if a family’s income had been at the poverty level for years but increased dramatically in the past year or two, you might be able to prove that savings were impossible when your income was sub $30k or so. However, I have not heard of anyone who presented these cases.</p>
<p>I have been impressed with the professionalism of Duke’s FA Office. I would encourage you to speak with an officer if you have questions or believe your circumstances don’t fit into their formulas.</p>
<p>@rmldad</p>
<p>I agree that families normally put aside some money for expected Future College bills.
Unforeseen catastrophe in our cases are bad investment decision (Wall Street) and a collapsing Housing Market which has wiped out all the savings. So no $$ are hidden under the Carpet …</p>
<p>Local state Universities are worst then private schools for FA. So its better to go for a good private school since the $$ amount out of pocket is same.</p>
<p>Only reason the Student loans is in a mess because Parents and Students keep borrowing huge amounts for atleast last 5-8 yrs and then unable to pay them back.
In few yrs Student loans will be worst then housing bubble we saw in 2007…</p>
<p>I am sure we will be having a detail talk with all of the FAs we applying including DUKE.</p>
<p>Stock market drops will probably not fall in the category of “unforseen catatrosphe”. By the time of the drop in 2008/2009, you should have started moving to more conservative investments in order to preserve capital. I realize it is water under the bridge at this point, but still a good word for parents with younger children.</p>
<p>Also, Duke does not consider home equity in their FA calculations, at least until you reach a somewhat high exemption level. Being underwater on your mortgage (or even slightly above water) will not affect your Duke FA package.</p>
<p>You can try to convince FA Officers that you had solid reasons for not preparing for a market decline, but my guess is that they have heard a thousand variations on it already and rejected all of them.</p>