Sad evening in our house last night. My daughter had recently been accepted to Cal Poly SLO. We are still waiting on a few other decisions to come, but SLO was her top pick given the academics, location and estimated price we received from the Cal Poly SLO Net Price Calculator. We are OOS, and the estimated price was $35,000/year. That included $2k in potential Grant or Scholarship money, so say $37,000/year toward the top end. We were planning a trip out to visit the campus and see the area (we live in MN), and had airfare picked out even but hadn’t booked it. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we received our financial aid award last night and logged in to see the details. With the federal loan and the PLUS loan, the total came to over $47,000. So we did a little digging, and that is in fact the current cost for OOS students. So I went back to the screenshot I took of the Net Price Calculator amount and noticed they base that price off 2016-17 tuition and costs! Why would they do that? So aside from the increases in the tuition and housing which amount to $6k, there is now an added fee for OOS students of $4k (the Opportunity Fee). This was added in 2019, so again doesn’t appear in the Net Price Calculator estimate. So it’s a $10,000 bump per year, and effectively makes the school beyond what we can afford. Disappointed would be an understatement. Had we known the cost would have been $47k, we would not have applied. My daughter in the meantime went from elated and ready to pack her bags to sad and depressed. Why would the University not use current pricing when estimating cost of attendance for prospective students? At least use the current year’s numbers, including the new fees. Very disappointed.
I’m so sorry! That totally sucks.
There is another thread with a similar story about the inaccurate NPC at NYU.
I think it’s terrible that schools aren’t updating their calculators.
Hoping your D has other great options that she can be excited about.
I agree that since so many individuals recommend to families/students to run the Net Price Calculator for any school of interest prior to applying, that the goal is hopefully they are updated. Unfortunately, all families also need to double check the updated Cost of attendance which is updated yearly on the school website.
As an OOS applicant, all families/students should also realize with the Cal State and UC systems, they will be close to full pay regardless.
I would definitely contact the FA office and submit your NPC estimate just so they can see the discrepancy. If they really want your daughter, they may offer a bit more aid. You never know unless you try.
We are in the same situation being out of state too. She only qualifies for loans. Also she was notified that this fall they are implementing a mandatory 2 year stay on campus for engineering majors. So she would have to live in the dorms for 2 years, so no way to save some money getting off campus after a year. We will still visit the campus end of March and possibly call an engineering advisor to see how many of her college classes they are allowing for credit. If it shaves off a year or more, it would be stretch, but it might be doable. (Look at a flow chart listed by major to see how many classes she might have already taken) We might ask about the mandatory 2 year stay in the dorms for her major and see if she is able to just do one. I guess it never hurts to ask.
Thank you for the insight and advice. I did reach out to admissions and ask if there was anything they could do. Guessing the answer is no, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. As an OOS student, we knew it would be full price most likely, and the $37k was something we could work with. An extra $40k plus most likely for the potential 4 years is just too much. She will have 8 AP courses, 3 CIS classes and a couple of dual enrollment courses once she graduates, so like the previous post, we can look and see how much that would potentially shave off the timeframe. She plans to take the 5 year path to a Masters, so this would screw that up also if the goal is to get out in 3 years. Previous to admission to Cal Poly, she was fairly serious about attending Alabama at which she received the Presidential Scholarship, so it would be on the opposite end of the financial spectrum. She’s still waiting on a few other admissions decisions which could also alter her decision, but Cal Poly at the NPC price point was a perfect match. I’ll post when we hear back from admissions. Thanks again for the replies.
But pay attention to the sequencing too. If she goes in with 30 credits you might think “Oh, that’s a year saved” but she may have sequencing problems for all the science or math classes, for classes that must be completed before the senior project.
My daughter didn’t really have any extra classes until spring of her senior year, when she took tennis and Spanish along with her senior project.
Will do! Thanks for the advice.
Will wait for your post. The cost is extravagant. I wonder is it worth it? But yeah, same here for my daughter. She was awarded the WUE for Oregon State. Also OSU has a direct transfer agreement with our local college, so she will go in as junior. They also have a 4+1 year accelerated masters program for her major, Mechanical Engineering. which she was thinking of doing. Definitely a lot of things to think about before making a decision.
I didn’t see that Oregon State offered WUE. Only Portland State. Is that new?
Yes, it is new this year. When my daughter told me she got it, I was surprised too. They used to give out a Pacific NW scholarship to OOS students. If you check Oregon State’s website they do mention it now.
That’s great!!