I have run many NPC’s at the schools my D has applied to, and they all say $8-10K is our expected cost.
I just ran the FAFSA4caster and it is telling me our EFC is $28K.
What is going to happen? She has applied mostly to private schools in New England and to UMass. Her safeties all gave scholarships, as did Tulane. I don’t expect any merit aid from her match/reach schools.
I have no idea what to think now. Am scared.
To add more info: Our current income is 0. H was laid off last year, pulled unemployment for a while, but now has a startup and so can not pull unemployment, and we are living off savings. His one employee is making more than we are making until this thing gets off the ground.
What trumps what? The NPC’s are supposed to be accurate but the EFC is triple what they say!!! Argh?
How much can you pay each year for four years?
When you say ‘safeties’ are you referring to admission safeties or financial safeties.
In other words, has she been accepted to a financial safety?
Is there such a thing as a financial safety when you are expecting to pay 10k/year?
Due to scholarships she has two schools that will be 14K and 18k per year which we can swing. However she’d have to live across the country for the first and live at home for the other. She isn’t interested in attending either school TBH.
She has several more scholarships at various schools however they do not bring the cost down to under 37K.
She has the Adams scholarship for UMass but it’s hardly anything. Our public is still 25K, of which she will get $1700 off by that scholarship.
I made her apply to a LOT of safeties. But the only true financial safety is community college, and I fear she’d be so bored and unchallenged.
My big question is how can the NPCs and the FAFSA4caster be SO OFF from each other, using exactly the same numbers? And the bigger question-- Are all of these NPC’s wrong? I feel so misled. 
If I’d known about the 4caster earlier I surely would have run it. But she’s our oldest, and I found out about it today. We have not filed our taxes yet.
What did Tulane offer? Many people are very happy with Tulane, if it works for you financially.
Tulane gave her the 93K one. It is definitely on our list as I’ve heard they are generous however she’s scared to go to N.O. She also got the Presidential to Alabama.
But my question really is are these NPC’s reliable after all??? She applied ED2 to Tufts and their NPC is 10K or 8K with work study.
The NPCs you ran must have been including merit aid (like Bama and Tulane). What did the Tufts NPC say? And did you verify you used the same income numbers?
Also, to give more info, H formerly had a quite high salary. One school, Dickinson, asked us to send our 2013 taxes. to see how high. He got sick, went on disability, then was let go. We are living off that savings from that former time. Our lifestyle is not grand. We live in an average 1600 sq ft. house with 1.5 bathrooms and a tiny yard.
So is he a dislocated worker? Could your kids qualify for free/reduced lunch at school?
The NPCs are only accurate if your situation is not complicated. If you have a complex financial picture the NPCs become less accurate.
If I’m not mistaken, cost of attendance at Tulane is around 55k per year, so if you take 23k off (93k/4 years) you would still be left with around 32k of cost per year. Unless I’m not understanding the offer she got.
The Presidential scholarship at the U of Alabama is a great deal and you should be left with around 15k COA or even less. If she’s worried about safety, etc. she would probably be very comfortable at Bama. You might try to get down for a visit, I hear a lot of kids fall in love with it once they visit. My son has the same offer (and we also have a complex financial picture making need-based aid anywhere iffy). I’m taking him to visit Bama at the end of January and I’m really hoping he loves it. That would make my life so much less stressful at this point.
Good luck!
There could be a number of reasons for the NPCs being more generous with my guess being the merit being included in there. Some NPCs do that, when they give out signiificant merit money to a lot of students. The ones that operate that way that I’ve seen do ask for test scores and grades, but I don’t know if that’s usual.
It is possible to get a Professional Judgement from schools to take into consideration your situation. FAFSA is a straight rack 'em up formula and any exceptions have to be taken up with the fin aid office. Being unemployed, for example, illness, one time bonuses, and the such are examples of what you can discuss with the fin aid offices individually.
Chris17Mom, you might be right. I was assuming COA at Tulane is 60K, thus the 37K price in my mind. I’m a little frazzled and probably didn’t remember it right. Add travel… I agree Alabama is a GREAT deal. Maybe we will see you there!
Madison85, yes, he was a dislocated worker, however he got tired of sitting around and so started his own company. So I don’t think he’s a dislocated worker any more?? He has an invention, a patent, capital from investors but since they are in the R&D phase they are not selling anything yet and he is not taking a salary. We qualified for the fee waivers and free lunch but they are not drawing on the free lunch (she’s a vegan, there’s nothing to eat at her school besides lettuce and french fries)
I don’t expect her to get any merit money at any of our remaining schools–they are all selective, and she’s a good student but not a top student. I ran NPC’s for all of them before applying. All of the NPC’s had significant GRANT money. Tufts had $50K of GRANT money in the NPC. I just don’t understand how it could be so off. According to FAFSA, we don’t even qualify for the Pell grant.
I guess there is nothing to do but file, wait and see. And tour Alabama! LOL
LOL, that’s the position I’m in too…Bewildered! I just have no idea what the actual offers are going to look like or if they will be very different from each other. That’s why it is so important to have a financial safety school, not just academic safeties. Alabama is great for that, and it’s a great school too, from what I hear. Make sure you have at least one good financial safety school and then hope for the best with the rest! Good luck!
You too!
Maybe @kelsmom could answer the dislocated worker question. When was he terminated? Is he collecting unemployment benefits?
He was terminated Feb. 2014. He did collect unemployment for part of 2014 but is no longer collecting unemployment as of a few months ago. You can not collect unemployment and start your own business so he made that choice since it’s kind of hard to get a job when you are 50. He did get a 6 month severance package (after we had a lawyer write a letter!) I ran all numbers off of what we got exactly from the severance package and the unemployment that he did collect. I have two other children, each a year behind her in school.
We are much luckier than most. We had a good safety net. All of our savings and stocks were entered in the NPC’s in the appropriate boxes. I’m wondering if I should get a professional to look over this stuff (not that I can afford it any more!)
Erin’s dad, I just saw your post. Yes, all numbers were carefully verified. It’s possible I made a mistake but I don’t think I did. Tufts NPC said 10K. When I saw that, I said, go ahead and apply ED2. She didn’t have an ED1 school b/c we really need to weigh financial options. I might call them. We can swing more than 10K, absolutely, however there would be nothing left for my younger two who are a junior and a sophomore in public high school.
(Erin’s dad, the autocorrect kept autocorrecting your name to Rinsed so I gave up and split it, LOL)
Assets will make your EFC come out higher I believe.
I would definitely expect that they would. However, I entered all the same assets on the NPC’s too! We don’t have a second home or anything like that. Truly bewildered.
It doesn’t matter if she EATS the free lunch, it’s just if she (or other kids) qualify. They you get to check the box on FAFSA and assets may be excluded from the calculations. Do not give up on UMass. The starting cost is lower because you are instate, you have the first Adams scholarship and if you can qualify for more, overall it may be the cheapest (low transportation cost too).
Seriously?