<p>Princeton uses a combination of the federal and institutional methodologies.</p>
<p>Like M3B said the federal methodology (FAFSA) is used to determine your eligiblity for federal aid (Pell, SEOG, AGC, Stafford loans, Perkins loans, etc). The CSS profile or Princeton’s own financial aid form is used to determine how the school will distribute their own institutional funds.</p>
<p>Princeton States</p>
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<p>Did you run your numbers through Princeton’s FA calculator?</p>
<p>This is easy. It’s a great aid package. You do work study and you work in the summer. Your parent can do a monthly payment plan to spread out her portion of the tuition. (She’ll get a bunch of it back in a tax refund anyway.) And if it ever gets to be a problem you can always borrow a small amount to make ends meet, but I doubt you’ll have to.</p>
<p>If you have a better offer somewhere, take it. But as a family with a nearly identical income and a kid at a school with similar aid policies as Princeton, your aid award looks pretty much like I’d expect. It is excellent.</p>
<p>At minimum you file the FAFSA (at almost every school) to determine your eligibility for federal aid (Pell/ seog grants, stafford and perkins loans). Most public univeristies will just require the fafsa (the exception may be UVA, UNC- CH, Mich and a few others which may require their own forms)</p>
<p>The CSS profile is used at different colleges that distribute their own institutional aid (Many of these schools have much deeper pockets).</p>
<p>Many schools that use a federal methodology to determine EFC will require only the FAFSA. Schools that use an instutional methodology or a combination of the 2 will require the CSS profile or their own FA forms.</p>
<p>The profile will take into consideration tuition for children attending high school. They may consider school expenses outside of high school for special needs children. They will consider unreimbursed medical expenses and taking care of eldering parents.</p>
<p>Differences between the IM and FM models are</p>
<p>IM collects information on estimated academic year family income, medical expenses, elementary and secondary school tuition and unusual circumstances. FM omits these questions.</p>
<p>IM considers a fuller range of family asset information, while FM ignores assets of siblings, all assets of certain families with less than $50,000 of income, and both home and family farm equity.</p>
<p>FM defines income as the “adjusted gross income” on federal tax returns, plus various categories of untaxed income. IM includes in total income any paper depreciation, business, rental or capital losses which artificially reduce adjusted gross income.</p>
<p>FM does not assume a minimum student contribution to education; IM expects the student, as primary beneficiary of the education, to devote some time each year to earning money to pay for education.</p>
<p>FM ignores the noncustodial parent in cases of divorce or separation; IM expects parents to help pay for education, regardless of current marital status.</p>
<p>FM and IM apply different percentages to adjust the parental contribution when multiple siblings are simultaneously enrolled in college, and IM considers only siblings enrolled in undergraduate programs.</p>
<p>The IM expected family share represents a best estimate of a family’s capacity (relative to other families) to absorb, over time, the costs of education. It is not an assessment of cash on hand, a value judgment about how much a family should be able to use current income, or a measure of liquidity. The final determinations of demonstrated need and awards rest with the University and are based upon a uniform and consistent treatment of family circumstances.</p>
<p>Except in the most extraordinary circumstances, Colleges classifies incoming students as dependent upon parents for institutional aid purposes, even though some students may meet the federal definition of “independence.”</p>
<p>Students enrolling as dependent students are considered dependent throughout their undergraduate years when need for institutional scholarships is determined.</p>
<p>For institutional aid purposes a student may not “declare” independence due to attainment of legal age, internal family arrangements, marriage or family disagreements.</p>
<p>Your COA (cost of attendance) is tuition, room board, books travel expenses and some misc. expenses associated with attending college.</p>
<p>*I am puzzled because Princeton says that, according to my income bracket of 65K, my family contribution should be next to nothing. I did not expect as high as 9,000 something. I don’t want to seem crazy or that I’m asking for too much. I really thought I would get more aid. *</p>
<p>If it’s true that Princeton has some kind of chart that says an income bracket of $65k pays very little, then you have to pursue the issue with Princeton. Have your ducks in a row when you speak to them. Have a copy of your CSS, find out what your NCP submitted, have a copy of whatever Princeton publishes that suggests that your family should have a lower contribution.</p>
<p>That said…oftentimes NCPs don’t share with the student and custodial parent what they’ve submitted to CSS (for privacy sake). Is it possible, that your NCP has been claiming poor, but really has some income/assets that he/she doesn’t want your family to know about?</p>
<p>Has your NCP remarried? If so, the new spouse’s income was considered.</p>
<p>Others who know more about CSS need to chime in here. If an NCP has reported income/assets to CSS, which he/she doesn’t want the custodial family to know about…how can the student properly address this with Princeton? </p>
<p>My concern is…if the student says to Princeton…"My custodial parent makes $65k and has no assets, and my NCP has no income or assets, so why is my family contribution so high? " What will Princeton say if Princeton knows from the NCP submittal that the the NCP actually has assets/income? Will Princeton say something like, your family’s total income is more than $65k? Or, Your family has assets. Or, will Princeton just say nothing and leave a student in the dark???</p>
<p>iCalculus it is difficult to read the websites and apply what is being said on those websites to your own “real life” situation. I’m going through that with S2 right now. The “examples” on the website and the “words” on the website one of the colleges would lead me to believe that we should be paying out of pocket around $10,000 per year. The EFC for this son (we have 2 in college) was darn close to the $10,000 because I had a period of unemployment last year and I am the sole income earner. The reality is that it will be slightly over $20,000 just for that son…on income pretty darn close to your parent’s income last year but clearly we have assets that the college feels is “fair game” and/or they “speculate” that my income this year will be higher due to full employment. Unfortunately it’s a college that is not as generous as Princeton. The only reason I share because I tend to want to be more private is that the proverbial “unknown” is how an individual college assesses your situation based on the paperwork you submit which is income plus everything else going on. You can’t base your situation on anecdotal reports from other students reporting their “EFC” or family income. On the surface and given only the tibits you’ve shared 'rentof2 is correct, you can make this work with not a ton of difficulty, but that is a discussion for you, your parent and maybe the finaid office if you feel you need that closure or you have specific questions how they arrived at that package.</p>