My daughter is seriously considering applying early to Mount Holyoke. We’ve run the net price calculator and are fine with the results…but we’re wondering, what are the chances that the MHC package will be very different from what the NPC says? We’ve played with it a bit to tweak it for our expected 2015 numbers, so we have an idea of that, but the thought that our price could be 10k more than the calculator says is a bit scary. Where they meet 100% of need I would hope it would be accurate, as merit awards go against need.
I did speak with the FA office and they said it’s pretty accurate in a garbage-in garbage-out kind of way. I’d love to hear real opinions though. Anyone?
Ours was accurate to within a couple hundred dollars, if I recall. My daughter LOVES MHC, by the way, and I’ve been incredibly impressed with it too. The student/faculty interaction is just fantastic. I feel extraordinarily lucky that she’s found such a perfect school for her.
@staceyneil Thank you! That’s what I was hoping to hear. My daughter thinks it’s perfect, too…here’s to hoping the admissions office thinks they’re a good match
Never used the calculator when D was applying, but we are in the middle of the middle class, and here fin. aid offer was quite generous. We never thought we’d be able to afford MHC, but it all worked out.
I don’t remember whether we ran the numbers using the NPC from MHC but our finaid offer was a few hundred dollars less than the NPC numbers on collegedata.com. Like @MADad we are also middle class and didn’t expect much finaid.
Also our D did get merit aid in addition to need–as far as I could tell the merit $$ did not offset need. Unless MHC considers us to be much more needy than the NPC I ran?
We’re less than a semester into the MoHo experience, but so far so good! Waiting to hear details during the fall break this weekend.
crepes–did your D go up the mountain on Mountain Day? D graduated 3 yrs ago but still gets excited when she hears it’s Mountain Day. In major cities, there are Mountain Day get-togethers at ice cream shops for alumni.
@MADad, yes, she did go up the mountain–all I know about it is from photos her friends posted on Facebook where it looks like they had a good time. She hasn’t posted any of her own pictures yet or told us anything about it. Another thing to catch up on with her but I get the feeling that right now she’s feeling a bit overwhelmed with school work, clubs, orchestra, dorm life etc.
Yes. Very accurate. I would encourage you to apply as MHC is typically as generous as other schools of similar caliber. My daughter is in her third year and our package has remained basically constant over three years.
MHC offers a world class education and amazing opportunity for motivated women. I’ve seen my daughter develop exponentially across many dimensions. I really don’t think I could ever put a price tag on her MHC experience.
I’ve told this story before in other threads, but I’ll repeat it—Two years after graduation, D was in the area so she stopped by the MHC campus to walk around a bit. After a few minutes of walking, she realized she was crying because she missed MHC so much!! None of my other kids have this kind of intense affection for their alma mater.
Pheebers, Mt. Holyoke is definitely a special place!
@Pheebers best of luck to your daughter! Ours is happy there, coping with bumps in the road here and there but overall happy to have found “MoHome” away from home. She’s an introvert and I was so afraid that I would be one of those parents posting about their kids having a hard time adjusting.
Has your daughter done an overnight? That was what decided mine that MHC was the school for her.
@Crepes, thanks! She hasn’t done an overnight, she just knew. I did encourage an overnight but to be honest, I also feel that it would be a great fit for her so I didn’t push. The tough thing is that I know she will be terribly disappointed if she doesn’t get in. Her guidance counselor feels she has a very strong chance, but with such a good school you never know! At least we should know by Jan 1.
Hmmm…I got 4-5k less than than the npc said. In fact, it gave me less aid than all the other sisters (with the exception of Barnard which I didn’t apply to). Because of my package, Moho dropped from my first choice to second last. Maybe my situation is peculiar, judging by the other comments, but maybe you ought to talk with someone at the FA office before applying ED.
@literallyleslie That is interesting. I wonder what might have caused that? I did speak with the financial aid office, and they said it’s pretty accurate, but if for some reason there were a problem we could decline the admission if admitted and the package wasn’t good enough. It would have to be pretty awful for her not to go, to be honest. My only fear is that they say “ah-ha, she’s stuck because she applied ED – we don’t have to give good financial aid.”
@Pheebers the other story I’ve heard about ED and aid is that the earlier is better because there’s a bigger pool of money still available. I don’t know how true this is for MHC but I’ve been told that it’s definitely the case at some schools.
If she really wants to go, and the “net Price Clac” shows a number you can afford, apply ED. Print out a cpoy of the Net price input and the results. If the amount comes above the net price calc, you have an out…
We had the same experience. Barnard wanted a very low parent contribution, but MHC wanted $5K. On appeal, they slightly increased it but it was still $3K below Barnard and the loan was double.
Just a quick follow-up for anyone reading this in the future… my daughter did apply and get in ED, and the FA package was indeed close to the NPC. We still need 2015 taxes to be done and submitted before we get the final package, but there’s no reason for us to think it will change drastically.
My observation has been that the biggest mistakes people make with the net price calculators are either assuming they’re accurate when you own your own business or have non-custodial parents, or if you forget to count the untaxed income you contribute to retirement funds. Hope this helps someone.
I also think you need to be aware that every university calculates EFC differently. Ours varied from $5,500 at MHC, to $850 at Smith and $0 at Barnard and Brown. I think the major difference was home equity, though I cannot be sure. I was surprised at the range. Of course, other places applied to like NYU piled on the loans, unlike MHC and the LACs.
From our experience, MHC expected more from home equity than other colleges, and also expected you to take a large percentage of loans. The other difference I noted was that their allowances for travel and things like books was much lower than elsewhere.
