<p>How accurate have you found them to be?</p>
<p>That depends to a large degree on your circumstances. If the student’s parents are married, and no one is self-employed, no tricky assets like trusts, etc… then they can be quite accurate. In situations with a divorce, business income, rental income, etc., they’re not as good.</p>
<p>Be aware that some seem to add in “possible” merit scholarships without asking for stats. Some also add in extra federal grants that aren’t assured. </p>
<p>A 0 EFC student’s NPC suggested that he’d get $5500 Pell (assured) and $4000 (SEOG - which is NOT assured). His actual aid pkg only included the $5500 Pell Grant…and the rest loans.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen the merit predictions without stats thing! The ones that do ask for stats, I tried a couple (after the fact) using my older son’s stats at schools where he had been awarded merit aid, and they were quite accurate for the merit predictions.</p>
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<p>I have used a few and found them wanting.
Off the top of my head Harvard’s NPC has the following issues:
- Does not take into account # of children. There is a drop-down that allows you to set family size but it does not change the calculation. Seems wrong given Harvard is theoretically a needs-blind institution.
- A very simplistic linear function is used to calculate parental contribution for liquid assets and real estate equity. Basically $5k per $100k of savings and $5k per $100k of equity above $100k.
- Assumes parent can monetize equity in house. They wrongly assume if you have $500k in equity your current income can support a loan against the equity.</p>
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<p>Every profile school will assume this, not only in their NPC but in their real aid computations as well. </p>
<p>The thing about the Harvard NPC not taking family size into account is definitely odd though.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>I don’t understand how they could make this assumption. It obviously unfairly penalizes the middle-class homeowner.</p>
<p>Really, I don’t understand how it is even legal the way colleges arrive at their cost for an apllicant.</p>
<p>What they actually expect is not that a family will take out all the equity in their home, but 5.6% of it. If you have a home with equity, then you have access to a source of cash that others don’t, and thus less “need” for the college to give or loan you their money.</p>
<p>Why do you claim it should be illegal? discriminatory?</p>
<p>We would love to be able to get to our equity, but are unemployed and the bank would not approve a loan. Seems they should account for such things.</p>
<p>@mathmomvt</p>
<p>My “I don’t understand” retort was rhetorical. In my neighborhood the growth in housing equity has far outstripped incomes. My income does not support the cash flow needed to support a HELOC.</p>
<p>Negotiating cost with colleges is analogous to going to Walmart wanting to buy a product, having Walmart refuse to tell you the cost of the product until more buyers show up wanting the same product and then having Walmart ask each buyer how much money they have and only then will Walmart tell you the cost of the product or even if they will sell you the product.</p>
<p>I have no idea if a school would make an exception in such a case, but one could ask. They might first try suggesting that you sell the house, but the viability of that suggestion would depend on whether you could live less expensively if you did so.</p>
<p>I believe that Walmart would be within its rights to say that if you could prove that you met certain income guidelines, you would be entitled to a discount on certain items in their store. Many fast food restaurants give free meals to the homeless if they come in and ask. And there are certain markets where people negotiate on price all the time. I can’t see anything illegal or even immoral in that.</p>
<p>Things get a lot less clear IMO when you start offering people a discount because of their race, gender, or sexual orientation, etc. (and yes, some schools do do this by means of special scholarships).</p>
<p>*I don’t understand how they could make this assumption. It obviously unfairly penalizes the middle-class homeowner.</p>
<p>Really, I don’t understand how it is even legal the way colleges arrive at their cost for an apllicant.
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<p>Legal?? What law could they possibly be breaking? Institutional aid is not a right. Anything given is a gift. Schools can decide any way they want how they determine aid. </p>
<p>If a child has some untapped asset, then a parent could insist that before the parent spends HIS money, that some of the untapped asset be spent first. Would you think that’s illegal, too?</p>