<p>Woo hoo!!!</p>
<p>Did you get the SAT results?</p>
<p>No, we have no horse in the race this go roundā¦ that WOOHOO was for your DD!!</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>I shall now try to go to sleep in earnest. See you tomorrow!!</p>
<p>Congrats AnjinT! We are with you . . . DSā14 is done with the SAT!
Canāt sleep now, but will have to wait a little before I wake the kid.</p>
<p>Thanks glidoā¦No more SAT!</p>
<p>Congrats, Anjin & Glido and your offspring! Wish were were done, but havenāt even started.</p>
<p>Kees4meāWe toured OSU last fall. DDās reaction was lukewarm. I think weāre going to head to Eugene after spring break as U of O has the same break we do. Have fun in Sunriver, the skiing should be fabulous.</p>
<p>PacNW-- Boo on Whitman. Iāve been a bit concerned about the amount of merit aid they are really giving. Where did your son end up? I so wish DD would consider Rice, Alabama and some of the fine schools in the east, but she isnāt budging from the west coast at this juncture. Not that I want my child to be far away but sheāll certainly have more options if sheāll leave CA, OR, WA.</p>
<p>congrats to the āone and doneā crowd! What a relief!</p>
<p>Letās just say after seeing Sās scores I am now planning to visit some test-optional schools. Someone will want my big Mr. Nice Guy.</p>
<p>DSās SAT scores are good but not fantastic. Not āone and doneā for him. His ACT was delayed until this weekend, so hopefully that will be his better test and heāll be done.</p>
<p>Hello parents! Do you know ā </p>
<ol>
<li><p>How accurate / close are the net price calculator numbers to the actual aid they give?</p></li>
<li><p>Why some college net price calculators ask for retirement savings while others donāt? </p></li>
<li><p>Do they take into account the retirement savings while calculating the financial aid?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Jasmine
We havenāt found the calculators helpful for a school that has an institutional method and requires a CSS etc. In part because they seem to do things behind closed doors that differ from using the straight #s from the tax forms, CSS, FAFSA etc</p>
<p>Are you looking at some schools that use only FAFSA and some that require the CSS Profile?</p>
<p>Congrats to those whose kiddos are āone and doneā with the SAT.
K2 hasnāt taken itāthat comes in Marchā¦I am hoping there will be a little prep with those books sitting on the floor.</p>
<p>Conflict with EC and ACT in April means no ACT til Juneā¦
sigh</p>
<p>I just registered DD for the April ACT test - what a long, detailed questionnaire to get through! I could answer many of the objective questions (grades, courses taken and to be taken, etc) but I couldnāt believe all the questions on āinterestsā. When she has time (ha!) sheāll have to go back and complete those questions!</p>
<p>Congratulations to our ACT crowd today with excellent scores!! Anjin & Gildo, big cheers to your kids!! :)</p>
<p>jasmineRose - NPCās ask for different information as some schools use simply the FAFSA to calculate need and others also include the Profile which goes more in depth. All schools are going to calculate your āneedā based on their institutional formula. Even a school that promises to cover 100% of demonstrated need may not be affordable if their idea of your need and yours are too far apart. The ādevilā is in that little word ādemonstratedā need. There are some exceptionally knowledgeable people in the financial aid forum that are excellent at answering questions. Iām not trying to āpass you offā, but you really should go by there and ask some questions. They are very willing to help and know their stuff!</p>
<p>[Financial</a> Aid & Scholarships - College Confidential](<a href=āhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/]Financialā>Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>edit: crossed posts with fogfog. :)</p>
<p>I had already signed DS up for the March sitting weeks ago! His scores are about average for his school so good but not eye popping. Hopefully he can do better on at least one section and take advantage of super scouting.</p>
<p>Sent from my SCH-I510 using CC</p>
<p>Jasmine, the simple answer to why some school ask for retirement savings and some do not, is that some use that info but most do not. Of those that use the info, they will never give you a straight answer as to how it is used, but from what I gather, they are looking to see if your savings are āway out of whackā with your reported income and other assets. I guess the feeling is that if you have way more than a person in your income bracket āought toā have saved for retirement, you ācould haveā been saving some of it for college instead. </p>
<p>They didnāt have the NPCs when Sā11 was applying, but as a single data-point, his current schoolās NPC is āin the ballparkā compared to his actual aid package.</p>
<p>Thanks fogfog and blueiguana. I will check out the forum you have suggested.</p>
<p>Class-- Does your state flagship place a lot of emphasis on test scores? Is it possible he could find a place in another state school? I get the impression that the privates scrutinize that more than publics, but I could be wrong. Our testing culture really frustrates me, especially when GPA is the best indicator of how a student will do in college not an SAT or ACT. </p>
<p>MathmomāWe are doomed if thatās the case about retirement. We have a healthy amount mostly because itās company funded. This will look out of whack for us. Time for a lottery ticketā¦</p>
<p>another thought</p>
<p>we used several peer schools online calculatorsāand our K1ās schools calculatorā¦
and
the aid package from a peer school was significantly better,
and
the aid package our student received the past 2 years has been less than the calculator and K1s school estimatesā¦last year it was off by 5 digits!! This year less, though still some. </p>
<p>That saidāleave yourself a cushion with the budget if the aid package is off by 10% etcā¦from the online calculator. The closed door meetings that - as others have said- determine your ability (in their opinion) are not transparent at all. So they are difficult to fight for adjustments. </p>
<p>We found a significant error in their calculationsā it took phone calls, etc to fix.</p>
<p>I am sooo not looking forward to this againāWe have to do the FAFSA and Profile for K1ās schoolā¦
so doing it for twoā¦
sighā¦</p>
<p>Thanks mathmom. The problem is we were two income household for 15 years but for the last 8 months it has become a single income household. So there is a mismatch of our annual income to what is in the retirement. Hence the question. It is really confusing and seem to vary between colleges. It is getting harder to calculate the rough net price for different colleges - if we want to choose a list of colleges to apply based on that.</p>