Hello, my family and I have just gotten a number from Northeastern’s financial aid calculator on what we can expect the costs and expenses to be. How accurate are these estimates in general?
Depends on if you put in everything correctly, and how complex your family finances are.
If you have married parents (or a widowed single parent) with mostly regular wage and salary income with small amounts of fairly ordinary investment income, that is probably the best case for accuracy.
If your parents are divorced, and the school requires both parents’ finances (Northeastern does), be sure to include both parents’ finances (including only one parent’s finances will result in an unrealistically optimistic estimate in this case), but be aware that accuracy may still be worse at many schools.
If income comes from a business, self-employment, or real estate, many schools’ net price calculators may be less accurate. In some cases, they may add back expenses that are ordinarily deducted for tax purposes.