I do not want to apply to any schools I know I cannot afford, so I was wondering if anyone who has used NPC tools could talk about how similar their estimate was to what they actually pay.
Obviously some are more accurate than others, but if I had to choose one that I rely on the most it would be the NPC through the collegeboard. (Unless a specific school doesn’t use this tool)
For me it was very accurate. Said we’d get $0 and we did. Sorry couldn’t help myself.
It was accurate for us also. Some showed merit aid, which did show up when it was predicted in at least two cases that I can remember.
It has been a few years, but I think that there were one or two schools where the NPC did not show merit aid, but where merit aid was offered.
In quite a few cases the NPCs were rather pessimistic in our case, and mostly correctly pessimistic.
If the parents are divorced or own a small business or farm or rental property the NPCs are said to not be accurate, but none of this applied to us.
The NPC I would rely on most would be the one posted on the school’s website. It will be the most up to date.
For schools meeting full need, the CollegeBoard’s generic estimator can provide an additional EFC estimate, as it is updated every year based on the CSS Profile.
However, every school calculates financial need differently, which is why they are estimates, not guarantees of aid.
CB CSS Calculator: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/paying-your-share/expected-family-contribution-calculator
The NPC for D20’s LAC was spot on. The school meets 100% of demonstrated need and our payment was exactly what the NPC said, a few dollars less than the EFC on the FAFSA. No divorce (or remarriage, obviously), we own our home but no other property, and while DH does some outside consulting, all of his income is reported on W2s and is not considered owning his own business.
The most accurate one for a given college is the one that the college’s financial aid web site points to.
For many, this will be on the College Board web site, but it will be a version customized for the specific college, not a generic College Board calculator.
If your parents are divorced, but the college requires both of their finances (see the college’s financial aid web site), you need to include both of their finances in the net price calculator.
Depends.
Own investment property (i.e. not the house you live in with the family)? Own a small business? Divorce? An average type income but huge assets (stocks, bonds, etc.)?
These will make the NPC’s less accurate than a family with one or two breadwinners who earn a paycheck and assets consistent with their income level…
Very accurate school website calculators and at the schools D18 got into, nearly all were identical offers. Nothing out of the ordinary in our finances though.
Remember, no matter how accurate the NPC is in and of itself, garbage in = garbage out.
We too found the NPC at each college’s website to be very accurate in predicting the net cost for the school.
Given the caveats noted by prior posters, I should mention that although our assets were above the norm, we didn’t have any of the common factors (small business, divorce, etc.) that can hinder NPC accuracy.
Accurate if you get a copy of your tax form and use the correct numbers.
Ours ended up being very accurate. But we had a pretty straightforward situation. DS’s father and I are divorced, but we applied to FAFSA only schools and didn’t need to worry about the non-custodial parents income.
Good to know they might run pessimistic.