<p>Our two state universities had NPCs that said my daughter would get need based aid. The FAFSA said my daughter had a low EFC, but above the Pell amount. That is what the NPCs said too. But when the financial aid packages came out, nothing. There was no aid. I spoke to the colleges and got no answer. They refuse to explain how they award financial aid. And here on CC, people at those schools are reporting higher EFCs but they got need based grants. </p>
<p>If they were private schools using private funds, it would be a bit more understandable. But these are schools using tax dollars for financial aid. Both schools also had Net Price Calculators saying that there would be grant/scholarship aid. I thought some law or rule had been put in place requiring transparency and requiring attempts at accurate NPCs. No other school except UT Austin and Texas A&M were off like this. </p>
<p>Is it an in state school?
Sometime timing is an issue as funding may be limited. It is advise to file FAFSA as early as possible for that reason. Did you file an appeal? If you filed FAFSA, your D should be at least eligible for the loans up to $5500.
In some NPC, they listed the average grant/scholarship amount or a typical range. It is Federally mandated to have NPC from each school, but I don’t think there is any guarantee to meet the estimate as there are often other factors that may affect the calculation.</p>
<p>My child did the FAFSA Jan 1. She was in top 10% and had more EFCs and community service than anyone else.</p>
<p>NPC’s are based on what a school expects to have in funding, which can be removed at the last minute. For example, last year the school might have had more money than they received this year, so the maximum EFC for aid may have been lowered - leaving your D without. Another reason may be that your D’s FAFSA filing date was late enough that all of the money was gone (NPC is based on filing FAFSA in a timely manner). There are a number of other factors that may influence the difference between the NPC and the actual award. To answer your question, no - there are no laws for the NPC or for awarding grants/scholarships (other than Pell, which is an entitlement). </p>
<p>You can report it here But the NPCs are supposed to be estimates only, and there likely will be any number of schools off. You are fortunate if only a few of your schools are off. A lot of aid is on a first come first serve basis, and once it’s gone, that’s it. Those include goodies like grants that any school might have in their private treasure chests, special donations, SEOG, Perkins, Workstudy money. THose things often go very fast. Plus some schools do triage their accepted students and those in Group 1 get more goodies than Group 2, and Group 3 gets whats left and Group 4 gets gapped big time with only state/federal entitlements. and a suggestion to look at PLUS as a source of loans (or deceptively packaged as aid).</p>
<p>This is the second report of UT Austin running out of money I’ve read on these boards, by the way Also, how does your state funding work? Is it guaranteed by formula need like PELL(our state does that with TAP) or given out at the discretion of the school like SEOG, though need has to be there to be eligible? </p>
<p>Other people are posting here, with less ECs, very little community service compared to her, even lower SAT scores, higher EFCs, and later filing dates, and getting grants (not just scholarships, for need based grants).</p>
<p>It was Texas A&M too. She was even in the honors college there, and nothing.She was admitted early Sept and put down the housing deposit Sept 10. </p>
<p>UT Austin said they put people in to groups, but then refused to state how they decided who goes in to which group.</p>
<p>Texas A&M just flat out refuses to release any information at all on how they award. A&M is the stinkiest of all. I feel like they lied to us every step of the way. They even told us that because daughter was in the honors college, she would get a scholarship related to that, and so on.</p>
<p>NPCs are relatively new, so there is no telling how accurate they are. They tend to be AVERAGES, not custom done> Where they are the most accurate are for those schools that guarantee to meet need and have no merit component and a simple financial picture of those putting in the info. Throw in a business ownership, and that can change the picture entirely, for example.</p>
<p>Also, it’s often not just when you filed the app that makes a difference but when the fin aid person gets it. The decisions are not made until an app is complete so you can send it early but if a rec or test score or something deems it incomplete, it is not acted upon. Then it can be set aside sometimes for later consideration if not considered an auto yes. It’s not a computer generated process for many schools. So, yes, what is happening to you, Imkh70 is not unusual. </p>
<p>That does sound baffling.
- You applied for aid very early
2 People with less need, lower stats <em>did</em> get aid.
- you didn’t.
If you don’t mind angering them, you might try calling local newspaper/tv channel and explaining it to them…being a public school, there’s likely a good story here. </p>
<p>Stat has little to do with need based aids, neither does EC and community service. The only valid arguments are the early submission of FAFSA (I assume you did the verification/update not too late) and the lower EFC (assuming you are comparing with others with the same state residency and need met status and not including scholarships). Scholarships are tricky as they may have other requirements/considerations in addition too stat, so it is really hard to compare among students.</p>
<p>Sorry, but the NPCs are for estimate only. For public universities, the only guaranteed aid for all is the Direct Loan. </p>
<p>@lmkh70
If you’re a middle class citizen, you’re very likely NOT to get any aid from UT Austin. At least that’s what I was able to conclude from my experiences in the UT Austin Facebook group.
That being said, I’m very surprised A&M was not more generous.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse
I’m sure the university deals with financial aid on a discretionary basis.</p>
<p>Unless you actually see someone else’s printed offer, it’s very difficult to determine what, exactly, they have. And the folks getting the awards don’t always understand what they’ve got. I had a student look me in the eye this year and say, quite seriously, “I don’t have any loans. I have financial aid.” That need based aid others are telling you they have might be a loan. Oh, people aren’t always forthcoming with all their financial matters. </p>
<p>I could tell you my D got X at her college. Might not mention it’s a benefit of my employment. Bottom line, you just can’t ever compare your situation to anyone else’s. NPCs provide an estimate. There’s no way to verify the data that goes in, so there’s no promise of aid. </p>
<p>I agree that the NPC is an estimate, but that shouldnt stop you from taking a screenshot and making some noise about how inaccurate their results are (if EFC was close to accurate).</p>
<p>I would go to the top of the FA office. Maybe nothing will be done for your child, but at least they need to know what their NPC is doing.</p>
<p>another TAMU student’s NPC showed that he was getting 9500 in fed grants, which assumed getting a large SEOG, which is never a given. the student counted on that aid and was very upset to only get the Pell award.</p>
<p>We do NOT have complete information from the OP. There are things that make the NPCs inaccurate…self employed parents, parents who are business owners, owning of real estate other than the primary residence, income other than earned income, divorced parents, any 1099 compensation. </p>
<p>The NPCs work better when the family has a relatively simple tax return with income reported by W-2 only. </p>
<p>We don’t know the OPs specific circumstances, and therefore really can’t comment.</p>
<p>I will say, it would be one thing if ONE Texas public was accurate and the other wasn’t. But they BOTH netted no need based aid. This leads me to believe that the school calculations for need based aid are accurate based on what the OP submitted.</p>
<p>ETA…Lmkh…if your DD committed to her college in September, it is very possible the NOC you were using (if done before she made that deposit) was LAST year’s NPC…and yes, they do change.</p>
<p>If the aid was a huge issue, it would perhaps have been prudent to wait for,your DD’s actual award before making an enrollment deposit.</p>
<p><<<<
.She was admitted early Sept and put down the housing deposit Sept 10.</p>
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<p>I missed the above…</p>
<p>i wonder if the school lost its motivation to be generous since commitment had already happened/</p>
<p>lmk… why is this coming up NOW at the end of may??? If she submitted fafsa on jan 1, then she would have gotten her fa pkg at least 2 months ago. so why are you upset now?</p>
<p>did your D get fa pkgs anywhere else/</p>
<p>I was wondering the same thing. The daughter should have received her aid package well before May 1, UNLESS the family had been selected for verification and had not completed the verification process. OR unless the finalized (after taxes were completed) FAFSA had been submitted using the IRS DRT had not been completed, and the colleges requested this be done.</p>
<p>To late to edit…</p>
<p>LMKH70… Your daughter chose her college in early April. From your own posts, she had several affordable options, and was pleased with her choice.</p>
<p>So I just have to ask…why do you care about these two Texas schools? It sounds to me like you want to try to stick it to them…sort of,the same way as when you inquired about your daughter withdrawing her acceptance to a school she didn’t plan to attend.</p>
<p>What exactly do,you want to gain? Your daughter has chosen another college, and she is happy with her choice.</p>
<p>Move on.</p>