hey ~ I’m planning on applying to a bunch of LACs, and some people tell me that people with 100k+ income receive almost nothing but the net price calculator for me says the opposite? Also, is it true that more financial aid will be given to the higher ranking students in order to get them to enroll? Thanks!
Be sure to fill out the NPCs correctly. If your parents are divorced or own a small business or have rental property, the NPC probably won’t be accurate. LACs included a a lot of different schools. Some meet need, some don’t (most don’t). I don’t think the packages vary much, if at all, by how much they want you.
okay, thank you so much!
What LACs?
At top LACs (Bowdoin, Macalester, Pomona, Grinnell, Davidson…) a family of 4 with an income of about 100K would receive more than a full tuition scholarship, depending on assets and the way equity is treated in their aid calculation formula.
At colleges that don’t meet need, such as Wooster or UPuget Sound or Villanova, it’s up to them and yes for these colleges the top applicants get more to create an incentive.
At colleges that meet need for all but the bottom applicants, such as Denison, Dickinson, St Lawrence, St Olaf, you’d have to be part of the top 50% applicants to have need met with preferential packaging.
In all cases, calculate your EFC then run the NPC and share your net cost at each.
I think Amherst and Williams are pretty generous with need based aid for families in your income bracket.
What LACs are you hoping to apply to?
The college’s net price calculator will generally give a better estimate than what random other people may tell you about the college’s financial aid.
However, the following situations can give misleading results in the net price calculators:
a. Divorced parents. You need to check if the college requires both parents’ finances (usually CSS Noncustodial Profile, though some schools like Oberlin and Princeton have their own forms). If so, then you need to put both of their finances in the net price calculator to avoid an overly optimistic estimate based only on one parent’s finances, but be aware that some net price calculators are less accurate for divorced parent situations even if you properly include both of their finances as the college specifies.
b. Small business income, rental income, and other unusual types of income. Some colleges add back some deductions, resulting in a higher income for financial aid purposes. You may want to run the net price calculator twice, once with income and once with revenue (without related deductions) to get a range of possibilities.
c. Some colleges just have very low quality net price calculators generally. If it asks very few questions, then it is less likely to be accurate.
Adding to @ucbalumnus
If your family owns real estate in addition to your primary residence…the NPCs might not be so accurate either.