I realize there are lots of variations and that the financial part of the common data set only gives the averages of the year in question. I’d like to see what the average Cost of Attendance was for the students of the year in question but being a non-college graduate I don’t understand what financial aid means exactly.
I’m looking at section H2. Do I add line j plus line k in order to see what the average assistance was to the average student? or is line j exclusive to line k and the average student only got one or the other but not both?
Also, is there another line that I should add to line j and k to get a closer amount to the total assistance that the average student got?
You might find it easier and more helpful to just use the Net Price Calculator on each college website. You will need to enter your family financial information…and you will get an estimate of your net cost…and possible aid.
If you are divorced parents, are self employed or own your own business, have real estate other than your primary residence…the NPC won’t be as accurate.
But if you have regular w-2 income, and no complicated finances…the NPC should be more helpful for YOU than the common data set.
@thumper1 Thank you for the advice on NPC but for all 10 colleges that I’ve entered they are miles far away from what the actual turns out. I plug in the exact numbers according to the line numbers in my 1040 and the numbers for the npc come out totally off. For example, I got a response from one college that has a Cost of Attendance of 36050 and the npc gave me 22828. When the college gave me their notification of award, it came out to 32050. Nearly 10k off the mark. Another college was 67043 CoA, the npc was 16893. The final cost after award for that one was 60043.
Apparently using the Common Data Set and looking at average assistances brings me closer to actual but I just need to know if J or K is the more accurate to use. I have one more day to enter a few more regular decision applications and don’t want to waste application fees.
So you are saying that your net costs are a LOT higher than what the NPC indicated? Not sure why the common data set would be helpful…at all…as it gives ranges…not finite numbers.
Again…do you have only w-2 income? No home equity, no secondary real estate? Parents are not divorced…? Nothing but regular w-2 income?
One more question…do all of these colleges guarantee to meet full need?
I don’t think you can use the Common Data Set for anything because it just gives you the average financial aid package.
Are you sure everything you entered in the calculators were right? Have you tried re entering your finances?
I’d try contacting the schools about the financial aid package and see if they could reconsider.
Do you know which colleges you’re eyeing? CC users can give feedback on whether the schools are good at meeting close to aid or not and the accuracy of the calculators.
@Jpgranier the info OP entered could have been very accurate. He has not stated whether he has a simple w-2 income picture…or something more complex.
Also, the less questions asked by the NPCs the less accurate they tend to be.
But really…without knowing the income and asset picture of the OP, we are onlynguessing why these NOC results are not accurate.
For example…if a school uses primary home equity, but doesn’t askmthat question on the NPC, the results will be different.
If the family is self employed or owns a business…different colleges treat that differently. There are plenty of deductions permitted by the IRS for tax purposes that are not for financial,aid purposes. These can be added back in as income for the self employed at some schools.
If the family owns another piece of real estate…and rhe NPC doesn’t ask about that…it will be counted as an asset in the calculation.
If the parents are divorced, and they entered only the custodial parent…the results will be inaccurate.
married, both employed, no farm, no businesses, 3 kids in private highschools. Simple w2.
But like I said, I’m not looking for exact figures, I’m just looking at what is closer to a realistic result between using J or using K.
With regards to asking people for an approximate, I have found that there is typically no one willing to reveal their numbers and even still, finding someone with the same joint income, and expenditures, and on top of all that, having recent results from the exact school in question.
Anyway, the results I’ve got so far are for rolling admission results of schools that responded quickly. We are still considering a few more school that we can afford to send my son to.
As an aside, I’d go back to those schools and show them the NPC results. They might increase their aid, or at least help you understand what is causing the discrepancy.
It would help if you gave us your kids stats, where they have applied and you have gotten results from already, and what his proposed major is. We could probably (1) have thoughts on why the packages are off – some schools are known for this, and (2) help make suggestions.
J is the average total financial aid package package, K is the average “free money” portion of a financial aid package with free money.
J minus K is a typical federal student loan and/or work study job amount, sort of. Some kids might get loans/jobs and no free money or vice versa, so the students averaged on line J and those averaged on line K can be different subsets of aid recipients.
Do all of the schools in question meet 100% demonstrated need (the majority of schools do not) Even among those that do, not everyone calculates your need the same
Do all of the schools in question require the same information in determining your need (are they all FAFSA only school or do they all require both the FAFSA and the profile or the FAFSA and their own form)
Do your parents own their home? Different schools look at home equity differently
Is there merit money as part of your need based package.
Not every school will look at 3 kids in private school the same (especially if none of the kids have to be there because of special needs. This is a personal life choice as how parents choose to spend their $$. You can go to public school and parents can bank tuition payments for college)
Are your parents putting in pre-tax dollars into their retirement account? Their contributions are added back in as income
The net price calculator is only going to be as good as the information it asks for and the information that you put in. Schools that ask more in depth questions tend to be more accurate.
ETA: averages, even from the CDS means nothing. It definitely does not mean that every student is getting what the average is.
A school could say that they give an average of $30k in need based aid with out telling you that student A needed 58k where student B only needed 2k (which still “averages” out to 30k). This is totally different from we give ever admitted student $30k ( regardless of their need)
@sybbie719 none of these schools claim to meet 100% need as demonstrated by my results.
@intparent appealing for change in financial awards typically gets them to drop the first year so that you then apply and seal the deal for their school. After they have you for the first year, they know they don’t have to comply the following years and they force you to either pay up or risk the worse result-look for another school to transfer which is awful in many ways. Therefore I rather not have to depend on appealing unless it is safely within the ballpark, not as far off as it currently is.
ETA…the school calculates the need based aid they think you should get. Not you…and not the net price calculator. These schools determined that your need was much higher than you thought it was going to be.
Do these schools guarantee to meet full need for all…or not?
If a school does NOT guarantee to meet full need, the only guarantee you get is the Direct Loan of $5500…and any Pell Grant to which you are entitled.
Many schools also do enrollment management, and/or preferential packaging of need based financial aid. This means that highly sought after students “might” get better need based aid packages than others.
Your FAFSA EFC is basically the minimum you would be expected to pay…the minimum.
At a school where your net cost is $60,000, I would,say that is an “admit/deny”. In other words…the school accepted your kiddo, but did not provide enough aid to make attendance possible.
did you do your research before applying? Does the school state as part of their financial aid policy that the meet 100% demonstrated need? If the school did not state that they meet 100% demonstrated need, then they gap. It is up to you and your family to not only pay your EFC but to fill the gap
If the school does not meet 100% they still determine what they want to give. Some schools do not have the endowments where they can afford to be very generous.
The net net is this: out of all the packages you have,do you have an affordable option? If no, then you may need to add some schools including the affordable local school that you may feel it is a fate worse than death to attend. If your parents can afford it, at least you will be going to college.
How much did your parents say that they would be willing to pay/borrow?
I just stumbled on this as I was taking a break from cleaning up NEw Years stuff and I have to stay the info I got from the common data set was more accurate for me than the online college calculators.