EFC question!

Hi everyone, thanks for all your help on my last question but I now have another question.

Background:

  1. Yale has told me that my family’s EFC is $46,000 (they gave us about ~$20,000).
  2. My parents filed their income changes for the National Association of Independent Schools (my siblings are in private school) and they determined that our EFC is $31,000 for all students at any school that has tuition.
  3. I was just accepted to Washington and Lee and received the Johnson scholarship which is a full ride but it also said that if I didn’t receive the Johnson, my family’s EFC would be $31,000.

I know Yale calculates financial aid differently than NAIS and even different colleges but does this sound like a situation in which we should appeal for more aid or ask Yale for our packaged to be reviewed?

Yale’s financial aid was an estimate because I applied and was accepted SCEA so the final decision should be coming soon. I’ve heard that Yale often lowballs SCEA admits but I can’t imagine that it would be this severe.

I know that W&L is not necessarily a peer school so Yale might not match them but I’ll be getting an acceptance from Duke on Thursday and I’ll see which school Duke’s financial aid is closest to.

First (and you know this already), wait and see what Yale actually awards you. If the final award is significantly lower than W&L’s estimate, then, yes, you can contact Yale’s FA office and ask them to review your award.

BTW, what NAIS thinks your parents should have to pay is irrelevant. Colleges generally do not consider private elementary/high school expenses to be necessary expenses. In other words, attending private school is a luxury, just like driving an expensive car, and most colleges feel they should not have to subsidize that expense.

Yeah I understand that, I just included the NAIS thing because it was also similar to W&L.

Okay that’s a good idea but could it really be possible that Yale’s initial estimate was that inaccurate (~$15k difference)?

Depends in part on whether there was a significant difference between your family’s prior year’s finances and the more recent figures used to calculate the final award. You can also search the Yale forum to see if admitted students noted similar discrepancies in prior years.

What was the difference between your estimated income and your actual income? Did your parent incime go down in 2015 compared to 2014?

What will be the differences in your forms from the estimate to the accurate 2015 numbers.

At the end of the day…your Yale award should be based on the 2015 numbers assuming you have finalized those applications to reflect that you have completed your taxes…and resubmitted the FAFSA to Yale…with a link to the IRS Data Retreival Tool.

You need to ask Yale how they want your Profile updated to reflect 2015 actuate tax year numbers. Have you done that?

Actually we only submitted information for 2015, and there weren’t any significant changes from 2014 to 2015 anyway.

That being the case…what would make the Yale award any different than the estimated award?

Just wait and see.

It is a little odd that Yale’s need based aid award is lower. Are you positive the other college isn’t including any merit money in your net cost? Even without the Johnson scholarship…you might still have merit money in your award.

ETA…Yale meets full need for all accepted students…and the same formula is used for SCEA as RD accepted students. They don’t use a different formula that reduces need based aid for SCEA students.

And lastly…hoping you printed out the Profile you submitted to Yale for SCEA deadline…check EVERY line. See if there is something entered incorrectly.

What did the Yale Net Price Calculator tell you? Did you use that? Does your family own a business? Do they own rental properties or any other real estate other than your primary residence?

You have several siblings in private school. Can your parents pay $30-40k for each of you for four years of college?

My only thought is that W&L and Yale might consider different things in their formulas. @thumper1 We did the NPC in 2014 but income decreased in 2015 but the estimate containing the most recent tax returns (2015) gave us the same number as the NPC in 2014 which shouldn’t have happened.

@mommdc I have two siblings in private school and my parents could definitely do $31k for me. They said ideally they would like to pay less than $40k but Yale’s current price is $46k.

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my siblings are in private school) and they determined that our EFC is $31,000 for all students at any school that has tuition.
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This is likely the issue…

High school aid is often more generous, yet they’ve determined that for AT LEAST 3 kids, your parents should be able to pay $93,000 a year in tuition. So, what does that say about your family’s income? Very high…probably above $250k.

I don’t know if private K-12 schools thoroughly look at assets, business deductions, etc, like CSS Profile schools do. If not, that may also be the reason why Yale (a super-aid school), is expecting your parents to pay more.

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was just accepted to Washington and Lee and received the Johnson scholarship which is a full ride but it also said that if I didn’t receive the Johnson, my family’s EFC would be $31,000.


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What are you saying here? Are you saying that W&L actually wrote in their FA pkg that if you hadn’t gotten the Johnson award, your “family contribution” would have been $31k? That seems like an odd thing for them to say. Did they also say that if you hadn’t gotten the Johnson award then you wouldn’t have gotten any merit at all from them?

Looks like you should go to W&L.

^and try and keep the scholarship

@mom2collegekids Well they didn’t phrase it that harshly, it just said something like “Alternatives” or “Other options”; I’m not really sure why they said it either. And our income is ~$180k.

And my parents did the Yale NPC again with the 2015 tax returns and the EFC was substantially different. They previously told me that our income decreased a little but wouldn’t make a significant difference in our EFC but apparently it did. Now the Yale NPC says our EFC is ~$34k which is much more manageable for our family. However, the estimate they gave us still expects us to pay $46k so we’ll wait until they send the actual FA package before asking for a review/appeal.

@“Erin’s Dad” @mommdc I have other options; it’s not a Yale versus W&L situation, I was just using them as FA examples.

W&L states "Winners of the Johnson Scholarship receive awards of at least tuition, room and board to attend Washington and Lee University. Students with financial need higher than this amount will have any additional need met by the scholarship. " The EFC probably is used to determine if more aid is needed.


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And our income is ~$180k <<<

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something isn’t right. Is that your family’s AGI? or income after taxes? Do your parents own a business, take business deductions, or own other properties. Do they have large retirement contributions?

Seems strange that the private K-12 expect your family to pay over $90k per year in tuition, if the family’s income is truly $180k…unless that is after business deductions or that is net income or the family has assets.

Yale’s “family contribution” is usually about 10% unless the family has high assets or the family owns a business or other properties.

so…what gives? do your parents own a business? If not, does either one have business deductions? Do they own assets with a high value?

@mom2collegekids That’s what I was thinking so maybe Yale’s first estimate was just really inaccurate because they don’t own a business or have business deductions and have assets worth a normal amount. And as for the siblings in private school, my mom also works in that private school so they get about half off the price and that’s manageable for my family.

I guess it depends on what “normal” means. What you consider normal and what Yale considers normal may be different.

I just meant normal by assets that aren’t particularly worth a lot. I didn’t want to reveal too much information about our financial situation.

Op- you are entitled to your privacy. But you should know that people post here all the time that they don’t want to sell their ski condo in Aspen to pay for college; don’t want to take out a mortgage on their fully paid for beach house to pay for college; etc.

One person’s “assets that aren’t particularly worth a lot” can mean 7 figures.

If it helps, we have one house, three cars, and no other significant investments like a pool or an expensive art gallery, etc. I’m not really sure what else could qualify as assets…however, I think my original issue was solved. The NPC has recalculated and it’s now similar to W&L’s offer, of course that’s not Yale’s official offer, but that’s what they should offer soon I guess.