For those of you who have experience, is there a typical time of the year when schools update their Net Price Calculators? I’ve run all the NPCs for my D19’s schools of interest, but they all involved using the 2016 tax year data for the 2017-2018 school year. If there’s a way to determine up front that a school has shifted everything up a year, I haven’t been able to find it. Obviously, the sooner I can plug in 2017 tax year data for the 2018-2019 school year to make sure the schools haven’t drifted out of our price range as my daughter finalizes her application list, the better.
For what it’s worth, one school we’re looking at (Haverford) has updated their College Board-based NPC, but I haven’t found any others…
[I searched for an answer to this question here on CC but came up empty. Thanks to all in advance.]
Some schools are two years behind. I was pretty shocked by the increase in tuition over a year but then realized the tuition was actually 2 years old in the NPC. Since some schools don’t even set the tuition for the coming year until the summer, the NPC isn’t going to be accurate. The first year my daughter’s bill was available July 7 and due Aug 11. Until July 7, I had no idea what I’d be expected to pay. The tuition went up about $2k per year, but we never got a lot of warning.
I think most change their NPCs as soon as they have the information for that year settled, so some time in the fall.
That notification of the tuition in mid-July would drive me nuts, @twoinanddone . A couple grand increase in the COA is no small thing if you’re expecting needs-based financial aid and don’t know how the college will calculate your NPC. Sigh…
This is the first June when I don’t care. She graduated!
The first year I needed a copy of the bill for an outside scholarship. It was really difficult to get it by the end of July (other daughter’s school too), and I started looking for a copy to send in with the scholarship application and that’s when I started searching for the actual numbers. Saw that tuition and was really shocked that it was several thousand more than I thought.
For what it’s worth, Reed’s financial website said its PROFILE would be available/updated on Oct. 1, 2017 (for the 2018-2019 school year). That’s confusing because right now if you fill that out you get data for 2017-2018, but at least that indicates that it won’t update its site until Oct. 1, 2018… http://www.reed.edu/financialaid/apply-for-financial-aid.html
It sounds like you may be confusing the CSS Profile with Reed’s NPC. They are not the same thing. Profile is a form that is offered and administered by a third party (CSS). Profile for academic year 2019-2020 will be available on October 1, 2018, and I’m sure that the Reed website will be updated well before this as they gear up for the next application season.
^ Ah, yes, you’re correct. Reed uses the College Board as its NPC provider, so obviously there’s some overlap with the CSS since that, too, is run by the College Board, but you’re right that they’re literally not the same thing and so the NPC could be updated before then.