I was playing around with the NPCs for the schools my son just applied to. My daughter is just a year behind, so I wanted to see how the aid would change when we have two in college instead of just one. One increased their aid by $6k, a couple stayed the same, and on one the aid actually decreased. I know these are just estimates anyway, but obviously there’s a huge flaw in the last one.
Some schools meet full need for all, and others just don’t. The ones that meet full need…your aid would increase. The ones that don’t meet full need…anything is possible…from $0 increase to a decent increase.
I agree that a decrease is odd. But anything is possible, I guess.
Is the decrease from a school that meets need?
Another thing to keep in mind…some of those NPCs are still set for students starting college year. They get updated annually so I would run them again in September.
And remember that when your second child enters college…they will be updated…again.
Financial aid policies DO change. So make sure you use the NPCs now as an estimate.
Tell the financial aid director of that school with NPC that makes no sense. Also report it on our NPC thread.
I didn’t know there is an NPC thread. I’ll check it out. Edit: Which thread is it? I did a search for NPC and there are a zillion hits.
It’s Washington State. The aid goes from $11,000 for one in college to $10,750 for two in college.