<p>Hello. Today I received my financial aid package from Notre Dame, who claims to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. According to the FAFSA, my estimated family contribution (EFC) was about 28,000. However, the package they offered me, including work-study, would require me to pay about 38,000 a year without loans, or 34,000 with loans. To calculate financial aid, wouldn't they just subtract your EFC from the total cost? How else would they calculate it? Because even with loans and work-study, their offer is still 6,000 more than my EFC which does not go along with their promise of meeting 100% of need. Is there any way I can get more aid from them? Is/has anyone else been in this situation? Thank you.</p>
<p>Schools that use CSS profile or their own finaid form in addition to fafsa use those to calculate what they think your need is. For those schools fafsa just determines if you are eligible for federal aid. Families with businesses, the self employed, those with rental properties will generally be expected to contribute more than what fafsa determines. Only the simplest of family financial situations may be close to what the fafsa efc is.</p>
<p>fafsa is not relevant to many private colleges. They use CSS Profile to calculate what they think your need is. (owning a home is usually a big asset which reduces “need”)</p>
<p>Did you run your income/assets through the net price calculator?</p>
<p><a href=“Net Price Calculator”>Net Price Calculator;
<p>ND’s promise is to meet your full need as THEY calculate it. This has nothing to do with the FAFSA EFC at all, which is used to determine your eligibility for federally funded need based aid (your EFC is WAY to high to qualify for any grant money from federal dollars).</p>
<p>Your EFC is $28,000 and ND is asking you to pay $6000 more than your FAFSA EFC. This includes loans Direct Loans and Work Study. Do I have that correct?</p>
<p>You need to understand that most school financial aid awards include the $5500 Direct Loan for freshman students.</p>
<p>Notre Dame uses the CSS Profile. This takes a much deeper look at your family finances than the FAFSA does. First, ND likely uses a portion of your primary home equity in the calculation. If anyone is self employed, or your family owns a business, this adds another layer. </p>
<p>In addition, most Profile schools have an expected student contribution which actually can be several thousand dollars a year.</p>
<p>Remember, the Profile SCHOOL calculates your financial need using its own formula. </p>
<p>What YOU need to do is look at the billable costs from ND…these are the costs the school will bill directly to you…tuition, fees, room, board. Does your financial aid package cover these costs when added to your EFC? Other costs…books, personal expenses, and travel are paid directly by you, and you can conserve on these costs.</p>
<p>If you find you can’t afford ND with the aid offered, you can ask them to review your package. BUT unless something has changed financially, it is not likely they will add to your need based aid award.</p>
<p>If ND is unaffordable, I hope you have affordable offers of acceptance.</p>
<p>The expected family and student contribution is usually more than the family wants to pay and sometimes more than the family can pay.</p>
<p>Somewhere back on CC a student posted that Yale would not give him more aid. His parents had bought a summer home the year before and now they can’t afford what Yale wants them to pay. (The parents refuse to sell their second home so that junior could go to Yale) </p>
<p>Did you try the NPC on ND’s website?
As a profile school, the way they calculate the EFC is different from FAFSA that it will include the equity of your primary home and all financial support to your education in the calculation. If your family do have a lot of equity value, your EFC would be much higher.</p>
<p>It’s s such a sham that there is no way to see which schools do meet need closer to FAFSA EFC than others. IMO, this guarantee to meet full need when the schools themselves define that need is total bullmanure.</p>
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<p>SJH…WHY DO YOU THINK THAT ND had your parents fill out CSS Profile???</p>
<pre><code>Why are you referring to your FAFSA EFC when you filled out CSS Profile? Why would ND even bother having people fill out CSS if they were just going to use FAFSA???
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<p>think of it like applying to college…colleges used your test scores and your GPA. They didn’t just use your GPA, because that wouldn’t necessarily tell them how strong a student you were. They also used your test scores (probably to a great extent).</p>
<p>So, someone with a 4.0 GPA and a 21 ACT shouldn’t be crying that they didnt get into ND even though they had a 4.0…right??? Well, you can’t complain about your aid based only on your FAFSA.</p>
<p>Your CSS Profile obviously revealed a source of money that FAFSA doesn’t reveal…maybe home equity, a business value, soft business deductions, etc.</p>
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<p>1) Isn’t that what the net price calculator is for? </p>
<p>2) And what is the sham? If a college requires CSS Profile, by definition, they are not using fafsa EFC (and most colleges clearly spell that out on their website. But even if they don’t, see #1)</p>
<p>That is the reason why NPC is mandated for all colleges.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks for the info. Yes, I know they look at the CSS profile but so does St. Olaf who offered me a MUCH better package. My family doesn’t have anyone self-employed, own a business, or anything like that, I can’t imagine there would be much of a difference between it and my FAFSA. I just looked at the ND NPC and it was pretty much identical to their real offer- the real offer was actually a little better. So I guess Notre Dame just expects my family to be able to afford more than St. Olaf does? It seems strange that ND is expecting me to pay 15-20k more than Olaf is when both use the CSS…</p>
<p>Well, it may have something to do with your family’s assets. Some schools consider home equity, for example, while others don’t. But there’s one way to find out how they arrived at this unaffordable figure: call the Notre Dame financial aid office and ASK. You’d be absolutely within your rights in doing so, and they can probably give you some explanation of what figures they used in calculating your need, even if they’re not willing to give you their entire formula. And you never know - there may have been a mistake. It happens. So give them a call and find out.</p>
<p>I’m visiting on Tuesday, so I’ll talk with them then</p>
<p>St Olaf’s forumula is clearly different from ND’s. PROFILE just collects the additional data. The schools that use it can do what they please with it. For example, FAFSA doesn’t use primary home equity, Doesn’t even ask for it. PROFILE does and the schools then can use the full amount and assess whatever % toward it they please. Some will use that full amount, some will cap at dollar amounts, usually multiples of the income, and they really can even use whatever percentage, not necessarily the 5.6% that FAFSA uses for assets. None of the FAFSA formulas have to be used. Two PROFILE schools can come up with completely different expected contributions as you can see. Throw in some unusual situations, family businesses and there’s even more variance.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks for clarifying. I just think it’s weird that their expectations are so different, especially when my family doesn’t have anything unusual. Maybe it’s because I’m a triplet so I’ll have 2 siblings in college at the same time as me and Olaf and ND look at that differently? </p>
<p>Yes to all of the above . . . but it’s also possible there was a mistake. You just never know until you ask.</p>
<p>Did either offer include merit or are they both all need-based aid? Yes, the triplet situation is very uncommon and could be a factor.</p>
<p>If you are a triplet and ND figured that your family could pay $34k for each child with 3 in college, then your family’s income is very high. Very high incomes are likely going to see some variables with CSS schools because of each school’s formula. Also, is your parents’ income from two parents working or one?</p>
<p>CSS profile doesn’t split like FAFSA does. CSS uses a 60/60 split for two kids and something like a 40/40/40 split for three in college. </p>
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<ol>
<li><p>The school may calculate EFC different from the FAFSA calculation. This is the case if it requires additional forms like CSS/Profile. Note that different schools may have different calculations from each other.</p></li>
<li><p>All schools have an ESC (expected student contribution). The expectation is that the student will contribute in the form of a federal direct loan or work (or work study) earnings. Typical ESCs range from $4,000 to $10,000. ESCs on the smaller side can be met with a federal direct loan or a reasonable amount work earnings that a college student can earn. ESCs on the larger side typically need a federal direct loan and work earnings.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If the school “meets full need”, it will offer a net price = EFC + ESC (where EFC can, and usually is, the school’s version rather than the FAFSA version, and ESC is whatever the school wants to use).</p>
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<p>There has been such a way (albeit approximate) for a few years. It is called the Net Price Calculator. Ideally, students and parents concerned about college costs will use it on every school before applying.</p>
<p>Was St. Olaf’s money all need based aid? Even if it was…as a competitive applicant for ND, you would be a very desirable candidate for St. Olaf’s. They very much could have preferentially packaged your aid to encourage you to accept their offer. </p>
<p>UM…with three in college at the same time, each of you had an EFC of about $25,000 (rounding for ease). That means your total EFC is about $75,000 for all of you total. </p>
<p>It’s great that you got the aid you got. Your family income would be mighty high with a total family EFC in the $75,000 range. </p>