Great scholarship vs Dream school

Paying for College
21

Looks like this is an ED acceptance to Rice. this school is unaffordable for you.

First…your parents are divorced so the net price calculator will not be accurate.

Second, yes, your non-custodial parent info counted if it was required by the school. The school doesn’t care that this parent won’t contribute to your costs. The school makes its calculations based on whether your parent CAN contribute…and apparently this parent can.

If you did the net price calculator with only the custodial parent info, it would not include all of the financial resources Rice considers when calculating need based aid. What do you think your other parent income is…because that was included in the Rice calculation.

Third. What was the basis of your non custodial parent waiver? Being divorced and not paying child support is not the basis for a NCP waiver.

Fourth. Agree with comment uptrend. If finances are a huge consideration, why did you apply ED?

Fifth. If the finances are not firm by the time you need to commit to the ED school, I would suggest you thinkmVERY carefully about this. Bottom line…you can’t attend unless the bills can be paid. Where is that other $30,000 going to come from? There is no college cost fairy out there.

Sixth. The school promises to meet 100% of need, but that includes your non-custodial parent income and assets…not just your custodial parent assets.

Seven. There is no penalty for not accepting an ED acceptance offer because the finances didn’t work out.

22

OP couldn’t include the NCP income because he/she has no idea. So maybe the calculator assumed two adults living on 78k.

Amending my response because I somehow assumed OP is in Texas.

But this still holds: OP needs to learn colleges offer more than what high school.peers assume. He.needs to find his “glass half full.”

23

Thank you guys, I’ve made a decision. It was just weird because both of my schools decided the grant with the SAME information. Yet, the school that doesn’t even meet “100% need” gave me everything I needed, entirely need based. Some of you have been very kind, thank you for that :slight_smile:

24

Schools do their own calculations, and especially if they use the CSS or their own institutional formula, the packages will differ. If one uses the profile and one does not, the factors such as non-custodial parent’s income/assets will make a huge difference.

25

What is the other school? Is it FAFSA only or use CSS Profile w/o NCP info?

26

Schools follow their own financial aid policies:

  • Some are FAFSA-only and don’t use income from the non-custodial parent
  • Some use Profile and don’t use income from the non-custodial parent
  • Some use Profile and Non Custodial Profile
  • Some use home equity
  • Some don’t use home equity or limit it

It is less a matter of whether a school “meets full need” than what specific policies that school follows for students like you.