<p>I just ran the NCP for a school D1 has on her list. I thought the regulations were explicit regarding what the COA must include - however this school had a little twist (and I though rather snarky). When you get to the final page the transportation is listed as $0. I thought perhaps I had put in the wrong state (as we do not live in the same state as the school). No - I had input my info correctly so I clicked on the ? next to Transportation and it stated "Transportation can include a small cost for travel but please understand we cannot pay your travel expenses for you"
!! I don't expect them to pay my travel but I do expect them to include a reasonable amount since it is to be included in the COA and is a real cost to attend the school. If you ignore travel the Net Cost is not accurate - besides the fact that the regulation defines COA as including travel. I expect we will have many stories after more schools go live with the NPC.</p>
<p>Also I have noticed some schools list >$5,500 in the "Student Loan" line. I am sure we would not qualify for any more than Fed unsub loans of $5.5k (i.e. Perkins) - where does the extra loan come from? Are they throwing PLUS in the student loan line item?</p>
<p>With the net price calculators, how do colleges address the fact that they will write different financial aid packages depending partly on how desirable a particular candidate is?
For example, there was a discussion here last week about RPI, which is where my DS is now a sophomore. RPI does not claim to meet full need. Another parent (of a son in the same class year) said she was disappointed by what they offered her son; I think she said they didn’t meet need. However, in my son’s case they did meet full need, presumably because he had very high test scores.</p>
<p>So given that there is a variation in how financial aid awards are actually computed, how will the net price calculators reflect this? If the calculator doesn’t show that a potential student will get much aid he would be less likely to apply. But if it promises aid that then doesn’t materialize, people will feel treated unfairly.</p>
<p>I have tried to point this out before. All the calculator does is give an average. If a school has a lot of merit money, it might look like a student will get more than he will actually get. If the school has automatic scholarships, they can get around this by asking questions to find out if the student might qualify … but if the scholarships are not awarded automatically, it’s more difficult … the money just gets all averaged in. You are correct that they might lead people on, or turn them away, as the case may be. They should not be used as the gospel truth, but rather as a starting point.</p>
<p>I ran the NPCs for Pomona & CMC which are co-located. Both schools used the same estimates for books and personal expenses, but one gave $900 as estimated travel costs and the other $300. Since they’re in a consortium, you’d think they’d get their act together before submitting these calculators.</p>
<p>I agree with kelsmom, that if people are not aware of how these calculators work, they could be very disappointed by the FA package that they eventually receive.</p>
<p>*For example, there was a discussion here last week about RPI, which is where my DS is now a sophomore. RPI does not claim to meet full need. Another parent (of a son in the same class year) said she was disappointed by what they offered her son; I think she said they didn’t meet need. However, in my son’s case they did meet full need, presumably because he had very high test scores.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Even if your son didn’t have high test scores, RPI may have met your need if you didn’t have high need. Those whose need can be met with a 5500 student loan have their need met…even if they didn’t have high scores. </p>
<p>I don’t like those stats that give “avg need met” because those figures are only for accepted students …those who got lousy aid don’t enroll and their FA stats aren’t included. And, since many enrolled students may not have high need, the fact that they had 100% of need met doesn’t mean that they rec’d a dime in free money. </p>
<p>However, I know what you mean that some schools do enrollment management by giving “preferential FA pkgs” to high stats students. These same schools may practice admit/deny (poor FA pkgs to lower stats students) in hopes that these folks have a hidden money source somewhere. </p>
<p>Perhaps some of those schools will have (or do have) a place to put stats in. Maybe these NPCs will encourage more schools to give assured merit instead of only competitive merit so those with the right stats will get a more accurate picture of what they might get.</p>
<p>We almost took one school off our list because the FA came in so much higher than we anticipated. Fortunately, I decided to run it again and it seemed more in line with % of need the school meets. So it can cut both ways…</p>
<p>Please don’t get upset at this post. It is a choice to have your student attend a school that is far from home and therefore requires significant travel expenses. Some schools do factor this in, and others simply do not.</p>
<p>If the cost of travel is a “deal breaker” for you, then look at schools that have similar characteristics that do not have this travel cost associated with attendance.</p>
<p>(One of our kids went 3000 miles away from home. We did NOT expect the college to fund travel home).</p>
<p>Thumper I agree with you. My issue was that when one compares NET Price of School #1 to School #2 the comparison is not accurate if one school doesn’t consider the travel cost and the other does. I think the intent of the Federal requirement for the NPC was to level the playing field in how schools compute the Net Price - so the consumer/student could compare apples to apples. I can easily guess what travel will cost and add it onto the net for that particular school, I just think it is a little sneaky when the regulation spells out the travel is to be included in the COA. I was not trying to imply the school should cover any particular cost just develop a true COA according to the regulation.</p>
<p>PS - In my experience Pomona and CMC calculate everything separately - however I did request an increase in travel expenses from CMC for my D1 (and they did adjust that).</p>
<p>* I just think it is a little sneaky when the regulation spells out the travel is to be included in the COA*</p>
<p>Since there is no standard, some schools include very little and in your case, nothing.</p>
<p>I wonder if some schools are neglecting to include travel (and personal expenses) so that it will look like they’re covering most costs. </p>
<p>It seems to me that there should be just basic costs (tuition, room, board, fees, books) for these calculators with an added note that depending on distance and personal habits, a student may incur another $2k-4k in travel and personal expenses.</p>
<p>M2CK - exactly that is what happened in the past. I am saying since the passage of the revision to the HEOP it requires by law that schools provide a Net Price calculator that includes a COA as follows:
(2) Cost of attendance.–The term `cost of attendance’
means the average annual cost of tuition and fees, room and
board, books, supplies, and transportation for an institution of
higher education for a first-time, full-time undergraduate
student enrolled in the institution.</p>
<p>My point is this regulation was developed for the consumers benefit so one can compare true COA from school to school. Even if you are full pay it would be nice to compare COA and COA that is developed in the same manner.</p>
<p>The big caveat is as Kelsmom said. It is an average (both cost and FA award) and may not accurately represent your individual results. I understand that - I just think they should start from the same point and provide a COA in compliance with the regulation. Maybe it’s my pet peeve - but I work in a highly regulated environment and I have to be careful to follow the rules…</p>
<p>While schools are required to develop a COA, and the COA is to include the things that are allowed to be in the COA, the thing to remember is that there is no requirement to include everything that can be there, in the COA. And there is no requirement that any of the components be any particular amount … which allows the travel expense to be 0. Everything in finaid is done around regulations.</p>
<p>Why a school would not include an average amount for travel, I don’t know. However, this is my suspicion: Some schools - especially those that draw from all over the world - have different travel expense amounts depending on how far from the school the student lives. I suspect that they are concerned that their “average” is misleading to many. That is, the average is high, and many students would not get that much for travel. The concern in this case would be that a student might think that their COA would be higher than it actually would be … and for a meets-need school, this would translate into a student thinking he would get more aid than he would.</p>
<p>Many of those ancillary costs like travel will be averages or best guesses of what is appropriate. The calculator will never be extremely accurate. Travel costs vary (distance, flight/drive), book costs vary, lab costs vary…</p>
<p>Another thing to remember…travel costs are subject to change by the vendors (airlines). Our kids travel costs increased just in her first year in college. Trip home at Christmas was $299 round trip. Trip home in June was $450…and you would think that the holiday time would have been more pricey.</p>
<p>While this won’t work for everyone, in making the college budget each year I strip out the travel, the books, the sundries until I’m just at the hard billable costs. Then I add back in the travel, the books and the sundries based on the kid and where that kid is, where he’s living and what his major is (some majors have higher book costs) to come up with my budget. Those hard costs come at intervals, also. Books right away, travel at the holidays, Club sports fees at the start of the season, and so on. So this helps me also with my month to month budgets as well as the overall picture of what that particular year is going to entail.</p>
<p>I ran the NPCs for two schools we’re considering. At first glance, the net costs were almost the same. At first glance. For the second, under the net cost, it then said, you are also eligible for $2000 in subsidized loan, $3500 in unsubsidized, and $2500 in work study. The first school had already included those to get to its net cost.
Don’t know which was in strict compliance, and don’t much care; but I know which moved up our list and which moved down.</p>
<p>I’m always amazed to see such wide estimates for books, personal expenses, and (as mentioned above) transportation. </p>
<p>some students are very frugal and only spend about 1000 per year in Personal expenses…while some might spend 500 a month on personal expenses. </p>
<p>There is an incentive for schools to underestimate “non-direct” expenses so that they can look like they’re meeting more need.</p>
<p>*I ran the NPCs for two schools we’re considering. At first glance, the net costs were almost the same. At first glance. For the second, under the net cost, it then said, you are also eligible for $2000 in subsidized loan, $3500 in unsubsidized, and $2500 in work study. The first school had already included those to get to its net cost.
*</p>