HI there!
We filled out the FAFSA, we filled out the CSS profile. Smith college has a questionaire to fill out about financials and has the question ‘For 20-21, how much is coming from parents, how much from savings, etc…’
What is the proper way to fille out the $ from parents? DO you base it on the EFC (we have 2 kids in college for 20-21, so it was split in half between them)
TIA
Use Smith’s net price calculator to find what it is likely to calculate for its parent and student contributions for you.
Answer the questions with amounts no higher than what Smith’s net price calculator result expects of you. Or perhaps somewhat lower.
It is possible that if parents indicate a willingness to pay more than the college-calculated parent contribution, the college financial aid office will increase the parent contribution to match that amount when preparing the actual financial aid offer. It is also possible that if parents indicate wanting to spend a little less, and the student is especially desirable, the college may offer either a small merit scholarship or preferential packaging of nominally need-based aid to improve the financial aid offer.
(Is there any other reason for colleges to ask this question?)
We were advised by our admissions consultant to pad the amount of the NPC by $100-200. D20 was seeking a lot of need-based aid at a meets full need, need-aware school. His reasoning was if we showed a willingness to stretch to meet our obligation, they might be more willing to accept her. The package actually has us paying a tiny bit less than the NPC.
thanks all.
I don’t even understand why schools ask this question. When all has been said and done, they are going to look at your finances, assess, your financial strength and tell how much they believe that you and your family can afford to pay.
Just answer the question honestly.
Here are some scenarios of what colleges could do with this information (EPC = expected (by the college) parent contribution, APC = actual parent contribution that the parents say they will contribute):
A. College calculates EPC, but then sees that EPC < APC. College then raises EPC to APC to prepare a financial aid offer that is worse than it would otherwise be.
B. College that does not officially offer merit scholarships calculates EPC, but sees that APC is a few thousand dollars short of EPC for a highly desirable applicant that it admits. College then lowers EPC to APC and prepares a “preferentially packaged” financial aid offer to that admitted applicant.
C. Same as B, but college offers merit scholarships, in which case merit scholarships may be offered to bridge the gap between APC and EPC for highly desired admitted applicants.
D. College calculated EPC, but sees that APC is far lower than EPC so that, even if the applicant is admitted, they will not attend because it is unaffordable. So the college rejects the applicant as part of yield protection.