ust thought I would update for the other’s that are waiting. Our financial aid package came today (finally!-- Son was accepted REA). I am happy to report that it was totally in line with the NPC and that ds will be attending in the fall.
Good luck to everyone else that is waiting.
Just accepted yesterday. It would be awesome to attend in the fall, but it all comes down to the amount of money I receive. NPC was from FAFSA, correct? If ND matched that number, it would be fantastic. Hopefully my financial aid reward is not delayed too much by the IDOC (we originally mailed it to them, but they never received it so we had to upload and scan it).
ND uses the CSS profile which is slightly different from FAFSA. Our family contribution via the CSS profile is higher than FAFSA, so it was not a match to our FAFSA EFC. But if you filled out the NPC for Notre Dame you will get an estimate which takes into account some attributes that are not included on FAFSA (ie, like the equity in your home, etc).
Very happy right now. We have been cautiously optimistic about DS acceptance to Notre Dame and now we can finally breathe.
Good luck to you, I hope the financial aid comes through and that you will enroll in the fall.
Was the CSS significantly greater?
Well, the CSS need determination can vary from school to school, but the Net Price Calculator that you can fill out for Notre Dame (we did this way before CSS profile was due) showed our need was about 5k different than our need via FAFSA. Now, that may be different for every family. I can’t remember all the items that came into play, (as they ask so many questions on the CSS profile–at some point one of the schools came back and requested additional info about what type of cars we own–not kidding!) The main thing that jumped out at me was it did ask what our house was worth vs. how much we owed on our home (this was on the ND NPC as well).
Still, the ND package was definitely in line with all the other school offers and for sure in line with what they estimated via their net price calculator. We felt it was very fair and are greatly relieved!
Our son’s financial package was in line and actually lower than the ND NPC. After receiving a ridiculously high offer from Rice, we are very happy and relieved by the offer from ND. We are taking it as a sign that God wants us to be an Irish family in the fall. 
Hope all admitted students get the financial offer they need!