I’d be curious to hear from seasoned folks how accurate these calculators are, compared to the actual financial aid package offered by the school.
I plugged our info (same info used for the FAFSA, plus D20’s gpa and SAT scores) into the calculator for the school she is most interested in, and the result was…encouraging. It actually came back slightly less than the EFC indicated in our FAFSA.
I’m curious if this a bait and switch tactic, or if we can truly expect an aid package to look like these results. Has anyone experienced getting drastically different real world numbers?
D20 would like to apply ED, but I’ve been hesitant, as we can only make it work if it really came to these numbers.
Thank you in advance for any insight you can offer.
Short answer: it depends on how well the school has built its NPC, and how often it’s updated to reflect any changes in school FA policies. There is no one universal answer that will cover every school.
FAFSA doesn’t ask any merit type questions, right? It shouldn’t be a surprise if you see this happen with a school that incorporates merit aid into its NPC. Any school that incorporates merit aid questions (GPA and test scores, etc.) into its NPC has the potential to predict a much different EFC than FAFSA spit out, especially if the merit-based questions indicate stellar performance.
Can you match the merit aid award with anything on the website? For example, if $5000 grant is showing up on the NPC and the ‘Presidential’ scholarship for that school is $5000 for the scores and gpa she has, I’d say the NPC is pretty accurate. For my kids they were 100%, but the first year neither received any need based aid.
Print out the result you get. If she applies ED and doesn’t get that award, you can ask why. May help, may not.
If she applies ED and doesn’t get enough to attend that school (your decision on whether it is enough), she can decline the acceptance. Really the only thing lost is the opportunity to apply to another school ED. If this is her top choice, it is the school she should apply to ED and not another school.
The net price calculator was highly accurate for schools that used the FAFSA only and had automatic merit scholarships published. All this I state with caution, because you will likely not know the actual costs until you receive the first tuition bill. Always assume 4-5% higher, as the NPCs are usually not the tuition price that you’ll be paying when your child attends.
The CSS profile schools were somewhat a hit and miss. Some were very close, some not at all, this mainly was due to lack of clarity with merit awards. If you are not dependent on those, the calculators will likely be very accurate for you.
Schools can change the amount of merit they offer from year to year, especially if they are moving towards moving most dollars towards need based aid. Tulane recently did this - when we did the net price calculator with test scores and GPA, the quoted amount looked like we could swing it. The actual amount that came back was significantly higher as 1) the merit award amounts were scaled back and 2) the net price calculator used tuition dollars that were likely 2 years old. The big increase in tuition plus the reduction in estimated merit caused the calculator to be 27% lower than the actual COA.