<p>The value they gave me was RIDICULOUS.
It was a good 9 thousand above what FAFSA gave for the EFC. I was under the impression that the PURPOSE of filling out FAFSA was so that colleges could see our EFC, not come up with some inflated one.
Any point in trying to talk to them and see if it was a mistake?</p>
<p>they use the CSS too... i think the CSS profile's calculations are way more than FAFSAs efc.. cause it asks for your house values.. my parental contribution i got for NU is 9,000 more than the EFC i got for FAFSA. Im pretty sure its becsaue teh house my parents own is worth a lot now, and they paid off the mortage for it a few years ago when our family situiation was better. *sigh, it was more than they wanted to pay, but we had some money saved up, so i actaully can attend.. ED i had no choice anyways.</p>
<p>Our parental contribution was higher than some of the other schools, but NU also backed in a lot of the extra costs like travel and books that the others did not...so if you add that to the others, not much of a difference.</p>
<p>hmmm...my parent financial contribution was pretty acurate in terms of the FAFSA, that's probably the only reason I'm being allowed to go.</p>
<p>Our contribution was about $1,500 higher than the FAFSA EFC. NW covered all of the need to make our (parents) cost about the same as several other schools except thay added $2,200/yr in unsubsidized loans. S wasn't thrilled with the thought of an additional $8,800 to pay back after graduation. He has a tough decision to make.</p>
<p>no aid or scholarship. prolly not gonna be going to northwestern.</p>
<p>I hear ya mac...our son's debt load would be about double what his brother will carry because of that same extra loan. About 25K over the course of four years difference in total cost between Northwestern and two other top choices.</p>