How accurate in general are the NPCs? Can I assume that is a good assessment of what we might be expected to pay at that College? I’m concerned because the EFC changes slightly depending on which College’s calculator you are using. Is potential merit aid already considered in the sites that ask for GPA? I’m basing College selection off of these so want to know potential margin for error. Are there any hard and fast rules to know around financial aid…like certain states don’t offer any aid to out of state students or anything else like that?
There are lots of rules about financial aid that are good to know. The NPCs vary among schools because every school has their own rules about how merit and need-based aid is allotted to their students. If that wasn’t the case, we would only need one NPC that covers every college in the country. The accuracy of each NPC depends on how closely it mimics the actual formula that the school uses. This varies widely. Accurate NPC results also depend on the accuracy of the information that the user enters.
Thank you. Is there somewhere on this site that I could find those hard and fast rules? Assuming I have entered data accurately into the NPCs can I assume a +/- 10% accuracy in the numbers the NPC comes back with?
No, you cannot. Some schools do a very poor job of maintaining NPCs that return valid information.
If you are divorced from your kids parent and have remarried, own a business, or have a complicated financial life (partnership proceeds, work as a 1099 contractor and deduct a lot of your expenses on your tax return, own a rental property) than be forewarned- your NPCs are likely to be WAY off.
I was never married to my kid’s parent. He used to pay child support when he worked but not recently and has only ever seen his son a few times and sent me an email stating not to expect any help paying for College or filling out the forms for that so yeah will have to figure that out. I haven’t remarried and don’t have any assets aside from my primary home and what is in checking, savings or retirement accounts so that is pretty clear cut with my salary.
With an uncooperative non custodial parent, you can write off getting FA at those colleges that require his information.
However, for those colleges that do not require his information, it looks like your finances are simple and ordinary enough that net price calculators should be in the best case for accuracy (of course, different colleges vary in accuracy ).
I agree with @ucbalumnus .
Depending on your income level, as a single parent and an income level under a certain level, you might only be required to file FAFSA at some schools.
At schools that do require non-custodial parent information, do yourself a favor and schedule an appointment with a FA director. They are ALL willing to help work with you and have ALL seen this before, so they can tell you the best course of action. Most are helpful to families even before applying, but definitely before commitment
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sent me an email stating not to expect any help paying for College or filling out the forms for that so yeah will have to figure that out.
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Them don’t apply to any schools that require NCP info. They will require his info since he has paid CS, you have contact info, etc. Such schools will not give any institutional aid at all because as far as they know, the NCP could be wealthy.
Just because a parent won’t pay is not a reason for a school to pay more.
That said, the NPC aren’t going to be accurate at all for schools that require NCP info because all you’re providing is one-half of the needed info.
What schools are on your child’s list. He may need a new list. I know this is frustrating, but schools have a right to know this info if family’s want aid.
I’m hoping I can convince his father to fill out the paperwork if I agree to do all the paying. We still need to narrow down the list but here are some that my son is interested in for Computer Engineering degree Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, U Penn, Cornell, Duke, Boston College, Case Western, Lehigh, RPI, WPI, Reed, Cal Poly, Johns Hopkins, Olin, Northeastern, Santa Clara, Wash StL, ASU, UT Austin and Texas A&M (we are in Texas and he is NMSF)
If you do try to use the NPCs on schools that require his information, be sure to include his finances in the NPC. The result may be less accurate than for simple financial situations, but you do not want to make the mistake of using only your information on the NPC of a school that requires his finances, which will give an inaccurate wildly optimistic estimate if he has any (particularly high) income or assets. Of course, if he is uncooperative with forms (may be due to not wanting to leak his finances to you), then that closes off any financial aid from those schools.
https://profile.collegeboard.org/profile/ppi/participatingInstitutions.aspx has a list of CSS Profile using schools; the fourth column indicates whether the non-custodial parent finances are needed (but verify on college web sites). Of your list, the following require non-custodial parent finances: Stanford, Princeton (own form, not CSS Profile), MIT, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Penn, Cornell, Duke, Boston College, Case Western, Lehigh, Reed (an odd choice for CSE…), WPI, Johns Hopkins, Northeastern, and WUStL. This leaves only RPI, Cal Poly (no out-of-state FA), Olin, Santa Clara, ASU, UT Austin, and Texas A&M that do not require non-custodial parent finances.
Reach level schools that have good financial aid and do not require non-custodial parent finances are Chicago (CS, no engineering) and Vanderbilt.
I will look into this further. Thanks for your help.