Hello,
My son has not received his financial aid award (or scholarship info) yet. Can anyone tell me if the NPC is accurate?
Thanks!
For us, it was NOT accurate. Not even close.
@piepiepie3 My personal experience is that it was not even close! Actual award came in over $13K less than NPC calculated. After receiving their award, I went back to NPC and input the numbers again to see if they had changed it since I first used it in November, and the calculated net price was exactly the same. (They haven’t even updated the Estimated Cost of Attendance in the NPC from the 2019-2020 year to the 2020-2021 year yet. This is substantial, because in 2019-2020 the ECA was $70,637, and for 2020-2021 the ECA will be $76,052, an increase of $5,415 - 8%!) Called them and they claim there are “other” factors they consider that aren’t addressed through the NPC, and they have had a “lot of issues” with it being inaccurate. Since the NPC is linked directly to the CSS Profile information, I couldn’t understand why there was such a disparity. The only thing I could figure might be our home equity, which they said they do consider. When I said that would be a very easy thing to add to the calculator since the CSS Profile calculates it anyway, they had no answer. I researched every college D was interested in, and eliminated any I assumed would be unaffordable for our family according to the NPC. And every other actual award except Syracuse I’ve seen come back from her acceptances has been within +/-$2K of the NPC estimate.
Long story short, had I known up front the actual cost would be so much higher, I never would have allowed D to apply. Why even use the NPC if it is inaccurate? It wastes a lot of time and money up front for those applying - application fees, costs for multiple visits, additional essays, etc. - and crushes the dreams of those accepted who realize later they can’t afford it. Now, since Syracuse turned out to be her first choice, we have some very difficult decisions to make since D has other more affordable options. And she is devastated as a result.
Same here. I’m trying to avoid looking his 529 Plan balance as well! Having said that, I do think the cost of attendance listed on my slice is not the same as other schools. Most only include tuition, room and board and not the incidental (books, supplies, personal expenses, etc). Be sure you are comparing similar items at each school
The NPC calculator underestimated for us. We ended up with more aid than we anticipated.
@“IMPATIENT MOM” When comparing schools apples to apples, I only look at tuition and room and board, since the additional costs are variable and discretionary. Syracuse is still the most expensive of all schools D applied to at $72,682 just for room & board next year. Crazy.
My son’s package was about $7K less than the NPC said. There is one thing we plan to ask Syracuse about (and maybe others like @Yocco2 who had surprising results could check for something similar on their own packages). On the Syracuse shopping sheet, our expected family contribution is $15.6K, even though our FAFSA EFC is $10.6K, and two other CSS Profile schools gave us a family contribution of $10.6K and $11.6K. Profile schools don’t have to follow the FAFSA, as there is more information on the Profile they can consider. But there really is nothing on our Profile to justify saying we can pay $5,000 more.
Of course, even if Syracuse determines their calculation of a reasonable family contribution was wrong, they don’t have to provide more aid, because they don’t promise to meet full need. But maybe they will determine the family contribution should be lower, and then provide more aid. All we can do is ask!