<p>This is a question to who received a need based aid. I wonder if it was similar or very different from the school's NPC that you have run before. I want some idea to finalize son's college list. It will be nicer if I can get inputs from a family with similar net cost (around 20k to 24k) for the following schools; U Chicago, UPenn, Pomona, Swarthmore, Vanderbilt, Williams, Davidson, Columbia, Northwestern, Cornell, Washington U, Emory</p>
<p>Well, its not the same school as yours, but GWU’s NPC gave me almost the same exact number as their financial aid award. I think the NPC actually underestimated by a few hundred dollars.</p>
<p>Thanks. I got much higher net cost from Georgetown so i had to exclude one of the finest school…</p>
<p>Sorry you meant GWU… Maybe I will look at GWU. Does that have good political sience program?</p>
<p>Our net cost was in that range and NPC were fairly accurate. Vandy was more generous than we expected and Rice’s price a little more.</p>
<p>TexasCollegeMom, that’s a great information. For some reason. Vandy’s net cost was the smallest among those schools. They even didn’t include any loans in their FA, so they are pretty generous.</p>
<p>Our experience is that schools that provide mainly need based aid were dead on with their NPCs. Schools that were not full need and/or offered merit aid tended to diverge widely from the NPCS.</p>
<p>Note that the NPC is a federal requirement and some schools are not happy about it because it can lead to false expectations of aid. </p>
<p>For example, from Muhlenberg: “Just a few reminders before you begin:The Net Price Calculator is a new requirement of the federal government. Some of the format for reporting the estimated cost to you is also a product of federal regulation. While it can provide a broad estimate of college costs, there are limitations.For example, at Muhlenberg, we dont operate on a single financial aid formula. We customize every financial aid package. A computerized calculator, which must operate on a set of formulas, cannot possibly capture all of the nuances that drive the ways in which we customize financial aid packages. As an example, we offer the opportunity for Talent Grants in the performing and visual arts based on audition or portfolio review. A formula-driven Net Price Calculator cant capture that possibility.”</p>
<p>In other words, we’re not a full need school, and we formulate our aid partly on how much we want you. So what you see on the NPC is not necessarily what you’ll get.</p>
<p>Incidentally, the Education Department’s National Center for Educational Statistics is a great resource for accurate information about a college’s aid, net price, and many other statistics, such as retention rate, etc. [College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics)</p>
<p>Notre Dame was about $10,000 more generous than the NPC, even though they are only need based. We did get a special award for merit but it specified merit AND financial need. All we had left was our Fafsa EFC almost dead on, but the package included some loans and work study so our overall take home out of pocket exceeded what we felt we could handle. D has chosen a school with full merit (almost) so we won’t have to sweat out the financials every year to see what we owe.</p>
<p>However, they were very generous. I’m kind of sad we can’t swing it.</p>
<p>Thanks Debbie for sharing your experience with Notre Dame.</p>
<p>For some reason, Williams’ net cost was about $1,000 less than Swarthmore and Pomona’s cost. Anyone got similar result? </p>
<p>Amherst’s one was $5,000 more than Williams’ so we’re excluding Amherst for this reason. I’m not sure though whether we can or should trust the NPC.</p>
<p>I just ran the numbers today for my high school junior. We are trying to get an idea of where we can afford. What I found for some state schools is that the guaranteed scholarship (based on stats) isn’t included. For us Duke was the least expensive and our top choice Emory was about $8,000 more. A few other privates that don’t meet need gave about the same amount just with a lot more loans. </p>
<p>A friend’s son just finished the application process and for them Emory, Vanderbilt, and Wash U gave the same amount of aid. Don’t know how it compared with the NPC. </p>
<p>I’ll be interested to see the results others received once the process is complete.</p>
<p>Not these schools but in general.</p>
<p>NPCs that I ran last year were quite different from this year results. NPC calculations are based on actual finaid at college from previous year. If something happens with state or federal funding THIS YEAR NPC will not catch it because it still uses last year’s results.</p>
<p>Examples: last year Cal grant eligibility was cut, this year Pell grant eligibility was cut. I read online that about 13 or 15 thousand kids were cut from Cal grant last year. I am sure their spring finaid package was not what they expected based on NPC fall results. Next year can bring some surprises to some people because of Pell.</p>
<p>I found at least a $5000 discrepancy, both to our advantage and disadvantage, between the calculators and what we received from various colleges.</p>
<p>I just ran the numbers today for my high school junior. We are trying to get an idea of where we can afford. What I found for some state schools is that the guaranteed scholarship (based on stats) isn’t included. F</p>
<p>there could be several reasons for this…</p>
<p>1) Schools often review their scholarships in the spring and then post them in the summer for the next app season. </p>
<p>2) Some schools have deadlines for scholarship apps, so an NPC doesn’t want to include them when the person might apply after the scholarship deadline.</p>
<p>3) The school may recalculate GPA and therefore the GPA that you input may not meet the req’t. </p>
<p>Which schools are you talking about?</p>
<p>(also, keep in mind that the COAs used in these NPCs are often 1-2 years old. :(</p>
<p>I second the caveat from mom2collegekids that the COAs are wrong, which gives false result. </p>
<p>My dh and I ran NPCs on 11 schools my dd applied to, but the only ones also on your list, OP, are two she didn’t get admitted to. They were also looking like the most affordable! ((Penn and Swat))</p>
<p>Just for the record though, Haverford was right on, Bryn Mawr was better than expected. Barnard and Sarah Lawrence were both 5k more than expected.</p>
<p>Muhlenberg was much worse, even with that quote above about “need shaping” I don’t understand it since she won their highest merit award.</p>
<p>Goucher, Ursinus and UD all ended up with no financial aid, because of large merit awards. Can’t complain about that!</p>
<p>NPC for Williams and Davidson spot on but not for Swarthmore in our case.</p>