<p>I know it is irrelevant to what USC defines as need but my family has a fafsa EFC of 24000 and peers of USC that I'm applying to when I run their Net Price I get an EFC of around 26-29k but when I run USCs npc I get like 35k. How accurate is it known to be? </p>
<p>Another question I have is does USC include the federal loans as part of meeting 100% of need? </p>
<p>Yes, Stafford loans are included in meeting need. The amounts are $5,500 freshman year, $6,500 sophomore year, and $7,500 each junior and senior years. Parent PLUS loans are NOT included as part of meeting need, but they are offered to assist with the expected contribution.</p>
<p>USC uses the CSS/Profile, which considers assets the FAFSA does not including home equity, to distribute USC grants. Therefore the amount you are expected to contribute may differ from your FAFSA EFC (and by differ, I mean it will probably be more). </p>
<p>I do not know how accurate the NPC is. </p>
<p>I believe the gap between the NPC and the actual award (cash grant/scholarship) was made up by subsidized, unsubsidized loans and work study. I didn’t realize that was included in the assumption of how to meet EFC. So beware, the final number from USC can be a shocker. But other times it works out in a student’s favor. So far, we’ve found the expense to be worth it. My D’s experience, so far, has been phenomenal.</p>
<p>But don’t interpret the NPC figure as accurate or comprised totally of grants. It won’t be. </p>
<p>On the NPC the actual award is listed separately from the federal loans and work study. Are you saying that USC will include private loans in the package to over their insutitional need?</p>
<p>No private student or parent loans are put into a USC FA package. Only loans are Fed for student (both sub and unsub). The rest is work study, Fed and/or state grants (if applicable) and university grants. </p>
<p>On NPC it lists the actual award and then the federal loans and federal work study separately. Are you saying that the institutional award on the npc may have private loans inside it? </p>
<p>On NPC it lists the actual award and then the federal loans and federal work study separately. Are you saying that the institutional award on the npc may have private loans inside it? </p>
<p>As madbean posted above, private loans are not included as a part of USC’s need-based award.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t rely on it. For grins I just entered data this year similar to what we entered last year and it gave a figure of “gift aid” twice the actual amount of cash aid actually awarded (no loans are included in that section). </p>
<p>I was told by a number of USC staff members to take NPC with a grain of salt. Both CSS and FAFSA list items that the Net Price Calculator does not - such as retirement balances and other information. But CSS is what they relied on in the past.</p>
<p>So brace yourself for the final figure to be worse than what is shown on the NPC. That way - if it is not - then treat it as a bonus and count your blessings. If you go back and read the financial aid thread you’ll see a lot of people were caught off guard when their acceptance packages arrived. USC gives out more acceptances than they have room to accommodate and I suspect that - although the students are highly recruitable at a number of colleges - money, in the end, is the final determinant.</p>
<p>Still - my D loves USC and we think it has been well worth the sacrifice.</p>
<p>I think we may be talking about two separate things here. As A&L states above, the EFC calculated by USC is based on their own formula using info from the CSS Profile and therefore the assets they consider may make the EFC much higher than some families expected. So based on some items that NPC cannot or does not account for, the NPC may give an accurate EFC or… maybe not. However, once an EFC is established, the FA package from USC does NOT contain loans (other than Fed student loans as mentioned many times above). If some families feel they cannot afford the EFC (and that is pretty common, I’m afraid), they may decide to meet the EFC by taking out their own loans. But that is not part of the FA package and is a family choice on how to come up with their EFC. In my limited observation, the families who find the most discrepancy between EFC based solely on FAFSA and EFC calculated using CSS Profile are self-employed, have their own business(es) and/or own highly valued property and other assets. If these do not apply to you, you are less likely to get a big shock. Another shocker can come when a family’s EFC suddenly changes when they only have one student in undergrad college (if EFC had previously been calculated with 2 in college). Grad school is not counted.</p>
<p>littletowndreams, I recommend you look at the first few pages of the FAQ for Financial aid thread for information on the composition of USC need-based financial aid packages - they do not include private loans or parent PLUS loans in meeting USC-determined need. Unfortunately 4 or 5 posters last year decided to make the FAQ thread their own personal rant thread (despite my repeated requests that they start new threads to highlight their concerns) and thereby rendered it no longer useful in a question and answer format. However, if you care to look through the over one thousand, three hundred fifty posts, you will find several hundred posters who were quite satisfied with their financial aid through USC. In fact, over 60% of the approximately 18,000 undergraduates - so over 10,000 current students - receive varying levels of need-based financial aid and are able to attend USC given that financial aid. </p>
<p>The comment about parents and rants was unnecessary and uncalled for. They disagreed with your advice and assertions based on their own personal experiences and were criticized for it. They were also responding to issues stated by students on CC who were trying your strategies and finding the results not as “promised”. Quite a few if I remember correctly. </p>
<p>What those parents - including me - tried to stress was that </p>
<ol>
<li>both on and off campus students were talking about sticker shock - including those with no obvious or substantial assets. </li>
<li>Students should not trust the NPC as accurate in all cases. Even USC says applicants should not rely on it.</li>
<li>Students should prepare for the worst case scenario - even those for whom USC is the “dream school.”</li>
<li>Parent assets are not always obvious to an applicant but are used with CSS to determine EFC.</li>
<li>that the final package will be a combination of grant aid, student loans, and workstudy.</li>
<li>EFC and “meets full demonstrated need” means what USC determines you can afford which may not match what the family thinks it can afford.</li>
</ol>
<p>The posts were directly in response to students who had followed your advice and were still looking at huge insurmountable debt. My own child made friends with a number of admitted students only to see them drop out because their parents couldn’t swing the finances. And those parents had salaries in a range that even I believed warranted full aid.</p>
<p>We also reiterated that NOT included in the FA package were parent methods of payment such as Plus Loans. However, when a student is accepted that option is listed in their online award spreadsheet as a way for parents to pay their portion of the bill once the students resources and aid is deducted. Said a staff member at a campus meeting “The Plus loans only check credit history, not if you have a job.” </p>
<p>So while the Plus loans are a manageable stretch for our family, it certainly wasn’t for a number of other families looking at four year debt in the six figures.</p>
<p>I will point out that Madbean hit it on the head. When our oldest child graduates our current EFC will increase for the youngest by that amount of undergraduate tuition. Hence, our net cost will remain unchanged, it will just all be allocated to the child remaining in college.</p>
<p>As I’ve said - forearmed is forewarned. We love USC. We’re just helping students see the reality from more than one perspective. </p>
<p>Fight on!</p>
<p>
Given the above, clearly not.</p>
<p>Sweetie - let it go. Honestly. We’re all enthusiastic USC parents and students trying to help new applicants and their parents find their way through the maze. There are a lot of different stories out there that don’t fit a one size fits all perspective. It’s time to share the sandbox and let some other opinions come through.</p>
<p>Especially in light of the articles in the Daily Trojan about students who entered Freshman year and then had to drop out when the financial aid dropped drastically the second year. Kudos for those getting a lot of straight grant aid. But even USC admits that is not the norm.</p>
<p>Students asking questions on these threads (and their parents) are smart enough to synthesize the information and different opinions provided and apply them to their own situation.</p>
<p>All anyone is saying is: “In trying to navigate based on someone else’s experience - caveat emptor. Results may vary.”</p>
<p>
What excellent advice, honeybunch! Given your continuing rants you have a long way to go. Best of luck on that.</p>
<p>Just to provide a financial aid basic (to posters looking for info, not to the poster above 
): As I often do each cycle I will answer the question, “What is the purpose of financial aid?” The purpose of financial aid is NOT to make college “affordable,” or “easy” or to allow you to keep earmarked funds in the bank. It is to make college, with much scrimping and sacrifice, just barely possible. So if a poster has a child attending USC they indeed found attending possible and therefore the financial aid was accurately and appropriately calculated. </p>
<p>As always, it is my advice to avoid debt beyond the standard Stafford loans and be sure you have a financial safety on your list. If USC turns out to be unaffordable and will result in significant debt, I advise you to choose a more affordable option.This is one of the many, many issues on which the above poster disagrees vehemently, and I am sure she will pop in to let you know. Caveat emptor indeed ;)</p>
<p>A&L, I appreciate your personal perspective and like it when you contribute. Many voices give a broad base of opinions here and your background gives your opinions a lot of value. However difficult the back and forth got on the previous FA thread, I think the OP was quite clear and accurate in the FA information she shared. The fact of the matter is: many middle class families are aghast at the EFC they receive from any given FA office. For whatever reason, families are often in the dark as to how much $$ a university expects them to have been saving, investing all these years (times the number of kids in the family) and expects them to pay. I think she warns of this loud and clear, and I certainly do. </p>
<p>In fact, many of us go to a great deal of effort to explain that EFC determinations (and indeed, admissions and merit competitions) are not transparent. And despite NPC, and due also to the delicacy of openly discussing family net worth and employment, we often get frustrated when year after year, some folks are still shocked, stunned, hurt, aggravated and surprised at that EFC number and lash out at the unfairness of USC. I believe that we all suggest students apply to a broad range of schools if FA in an important factor. EFCs can vary from school to school, and while USC is much more generous than some, it may be less generous than others. YMMV.</p>
<p>While I sympathize with all families who are facing the outrageous costs of private college–after all, we posters are among them!–I don’t blame USC and it’s hard for me to see others take that tack. USC is not playing favorites in their FA. They are going by their own rules and if a family doesn’t like the award they end up with, they must move on–like they do from any expensive family purchase. So blaming the university, or the parents who post on cc who try to explain (not defend) the procedures/outcomes as best they can does seem unfair to me. </p>
<p>Many of us believe that a student should not have one dream school, especially if it is a high reach either in acceptance or affordability. Private schools are a luxury, frankly, and “dream schools” can be a bitter trap. Great educations happen at a lot of wonderful schools. Those of us who have seen our students thrive at USC are naturally drawn to all it’s great advantages, yet this school does not strive to give each accepted student a full ride or anywhere close. I am among the parents that have stretched and sacrificed–within reason–to have my kids attend private schools. For each family there will be a different discussion, and funds will either be found or they will move on. I believe it is really the most painful for families that have to seriously consider how far they can conceivably stretch to pay–that’s a difficult place to be. The reason I’m posting this way-too-long response is that I hate to see two great USC posters at odds. </p>
<p>I’ve been watching over this USC forum for quite a long time and I each year there are a handful (a dozen?) stories that come up of unhappy FA packages. Some are more vocal on CC, some are anecdotes heard and passed along. Some involve students who have greatly reduced grant aid after their first years–and that is troubling to any applicant who wonders about bait and switch tactics. But I must report that in each and every case that we’ve managed to follow up on–the student had a significant change in financial status over the past year that was the cause of their change in aid. When these same few (several?) stories get mentioned in a shorthand way, it can really give the wrong impression I believe. USC is not in financial trouble and is not looking to shortchange qualified students. HOWEVER (all caps), they can and do change awards each year based on the filings of your FAFSA and CSS Profile. If a family has more than one student undergrad, and one of them graduates, that will affect FA. If a family member gets a new job and earnings change, that will affect FA. If a family inherits property, etc. etc. Even if that asset is not cash–it may affect EFC. I’m no expert, but I just hope families applying to USC --and all other schools–wait until all the news is in. If your student is accepted–congratulations. It’s really a great accomplishment, getting harder every year it seems. And then–you get to look over your FA award package. If it doesn’t work for you, you can always submit an appeal. If even then you cannot make it work, please call USC FA and talk to a rep to see if there was a mistake (sometimes an asset is listed incorrectly on our part). But ultimately, you may need to prepare your student to walk away from any university that does not meet your own financial needs.</p>
<p>Thank you madbean for your efforts to smooth things over, however having been treated rudely and discourteously by this poster time and time again, and now to have her hurling further accusations at me, I have now lost patience and will no longer let her nonsense about me stand without response.</p>
<p>
Which strategies of mine resulted in such terrible results? Was it when I said to file all financial aid materials on time? Was it when I suggested they double-check for errors? Was it when I mentioned that anyone could appeal - the worst they could do was say no? Perhaps it was when I suggested they document unusual expenses. And please tell me EXACTLY what “promises” I have made to anyone about their aid package? **It is clear that YOU have never read the first page of the FAQ thread.
You are saying that I am responsible for the debt that students have chosen to take on? That my advice resulted in that debt? Please explain EXACTLY how you came to that conclusion - bearing in mind that I have am able to provide multiple examples where I advise against taking on large debt for ANY school and multiple examples where you advise the opposite.
Yes. That is how financial aid works at all colleges. If the disgruntled poster had looked at page one of the FAQ thread (posted in 2009 and available to them since that time), they would have known that.</p>
<p>Again, this poster has been rude to me, discourteous to me and has rendered a FAQ thread I maintained for several years - a unique resource to the USC forum - no longer useful with her continued rants against me. In addition she has made terrible accusations against me. I am afraid that cannot be “smoothed over.”</p>
<p>Well this thread is really scary… USC is my top pick 
The net price calculator tells me my net price will be ~$11,300 (excluding work-study & Stafford loan)
I’m concerned that this calculation doesn’t include housing which is a HUGE deal</p>
<p>Yes, USC’s NPC includes cost of attendance including housing and food. When you get to the final estimated calculation please look at the top part where it lists the estimated cost of attendance. You will see tuition and fees, room and board, books and other expenses.</p>
<p>The NPC did not exist when my student attended (2012 grad), but I just entered our financial information from when she attended and the net cost came out almost exactly the amount we paid. In any case, the NPC is just an estimator tool and does not represent an offer or guarantee of financial aid.</p>
<p>I am sorry that you found this thread scary. Please remember that there are literally thousands of students at USC right now who received sufficient financial aid to attend USC. Be sure you have applied to financial safeties and do not make final decisions until all information is received. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks for your post @alamemom
My second choice & financial safety is Cal Poly SLO & I already got in, all I can say is I’m crossing my fingers for not only admission to USC but also a generous financial aid gift
I’m also applying to 2 scholarships that USC admissions emailed me about & also will be crossing my fingers then
Idk what my luck is as a transfer since I heard Freshman get priority with aid & scholarships
Oh well ill hope for the best & be prepared for the worst </p>