So tonight I did the MyinTuition calculator for 7 “full need” schools, plus Harvard and Stanford. I took some guesses at my future income and which kids will be in school at the same time, because I have a fairly complicated situation on both counts. Still, I came up with a “most likely” scenario for 4 years and plugged it in.
I was surprised at the range of costs that I received. I expected there to be a big difference between Harvard and Rochester, although maybe not that big. But there were several surprises. Williams being so much more than Amherst was a surprise.
I don’t have a question here, and maybe this is no news to many of you. But I would advise anyone who is in the position where you qualify for some aid but not full aid to run the calculators for every school when putting together your list. Because the phrase “full need” is pretty meaningless frankly. One of the possible years I calculated had a range of $16,000-42,000 for the amount I was expected to pay. And these were Ivy/NESCAC schools with the high and low.
And I only looked at 9 schools. I think I’m going to do a spreadsheet, and plug a bunch more in. I knew there was some variation, but I didn’t realize how much.
This.
Add a column for when you ran the NPC, so you know if the info is dated. fwiw, full need at MIT was half of full need at U of Chicago for our kids. $32k vs $65k
Yes. That’s why “meets full need” means little. People go nuts when they see that FAFSA EFC and thing it stands for Every Friggin’ Cent (among other things). Then they fill out the CSS PROFILE that goes after the fillings in your teeth.
FAFSA only schools do not tend to meet full need. In fact, they often gap big time. Wut the PROFILE schools that fo guarantee to meet, you realize that they define that need and getting them to share that definition with you is like pulling teeth.
If you have a Non Custodial Parent, one a business, have equity in your home, the numbers can vary widely. For complicated situations, asking for a financial aid review is probably the way to go. But as you can see, the results can be all over the map.
Then there is merit. Sometimes merit awards can be more generous than the financial aid. If a school calculated need at $20k, you can get that in the form of a grant, those Direct Loans ($5500 freshman year, increasing as you go thru) with interest subsidized while still in school and Work study. But your student can get those loans unsubsidized anyways and get a job on campus. That $20k scholarship through merit will net more money since the student can avail self to those loans and work to bring down the cost further.
Some schools will do a financial aid pre-read, but many will not.
Merit awards are financial aid.
But merit is not need based.
And a lot of those meet full needs schools do not give merit at all…and for those that do, it’s beyond highly competitive.
Also, I would strongly suggest using the NPCs on the college websites.
And at meet full need if the student gets an outside scholarship the aid from the school will/can be reduced. So the amount you are expected to pay can’t be reduced. Although sometimes loans can be eliminated. But also work-study.
Very true; straight merit aid has no financial need element. But any merit aid is still financial aid.
When possible, try to use the NPCs associated with the College Board. Those tend to be the most accurate.
I think the ones provided by the college (which sometimes link to College Board, sometimes not) are most accurate. I tracked what inputs I used for each school and did a screen shot that I saved each time I ran one.
One think that scares me is the future years. I took a huge income cut a few years ago and am working myself back. So using 2017 income this cycle, it was a great year to apply for financial aid. I was pleasantly surprised. I think I’m in good shape through D21’s freshman year. After that I will have less kids in school and more income. By the time she is a senior assuming my income is back to normal it’s going to be a painful year. And D25 is going to be the only one in school when she goes, so probably 4 of those years. At that point chasing merit probably makes more sense.
S19 kind of hit the jackpot. Which is the story of his life frankly. He gets the advantage of my worst income years in the last 20 and overlap with 2 siblings. Plus he is getting one of the more generous full need formulas.
I’m hoping after D21 gets acceptances I can run scenarios by the FA offices, not sure if anyone will do that or not. Because her freshman year won’t be the issue, it will be junior and senior year.
Sometimes a school will explicitly state on their website that they will or will not provide FA pre-reads. If you can’t find anything on the website, a quick phone call to the FA office should provide an answer.
I found the same thing several years ago regarding Williams when compared to a different NESCAC school (not Amherst). I know that every family’s financial situation is different and the need-based aid formulas are generally a mystery, but considering the strong reputation that Williams has for excellent need-based aid, I too was surprised.
Good advice on the CB NPC’s. I probably will do those next year, but for now I think the rougher estimate from MyinTuition is good enough. And I’m inputting 5 very different years, so even the quick version is a pain. Right now I’m just trying to get a ballpark idea. Plus D has me doing the basic research, so this will help me head off “falling in love” with a school that just won’t work.
Sidenote, I’m bummed about how Rochester came out. That seemed to me like a great option for her. It’s still doable, but barely.
And I think ED anywhere will be a no go for her. Which really stinks. Both to lose the bump and to lose all the time applying to multiple schools. I kind of knew this was the case already, but it just confirmed it. She still will probably do EA to one of the most generous schools, but I like her odds of ED at Brown or Rochester a lot more than her odds of EA at Harvard.
@dadof4kids Just throwing out there that both BU and Northeastern guarantee the FA package you get freshman year for all 4 years.
Now that I am on college kid four, I am numb to trying to figure it all out. The thing that I found very odd and still do not think makes sense is the EFC number. The students loans not counting as part of the family contribution.Just always strikes me as odd that those loans, taken or not, are not considered part of family contribution.
Also, if you’re interested in Rochester and those numbers haven’t come out to your liking, have you looked at Emory? They meet 100% of need and our price ended up being even lower than the NPC. They also are very understanding of needing to back out of ED for financial reasons. My son applied ED only after being encouraged to do so by the Director of Admissions who assured me he could turn down an offer for FA reasons.
@collegemom9 that’s great info, thanks. So they don’t look at income changes? I assume they still adjust for siblings in school.
That would be a massive plus for our family.
Does anyone know of other schools like that? My projection for my contribution her freshman year is about 10% of what I expect to pay over 4 years if it is adjusted every year.
Also I will check out Emory.
@dadof4kids I’m not as familiar with BU but NEU says that you could literally win the lottery and they won’t change the package. The package doesn’t change at all regardless of income or siblings in college.
https://studentfinance.northeastern.edu/applying-for-aid/undergraduate/the-northeastern-promise/
Yes, merit money and scholarships are financial aid, but I was using the term to mean money that is not distributed strictly on a formula need basis. Getting technical, it gets even more blurry as there are awards that are merit within need and need within merit. But I was drawing a line between money a college awards without regard to FAFSA or PROFILE EFC, and packages given out using those numbers.
There was a time, I knew a number of AOs and FAOs and employees in offices of some smaller private schools. At that time, the need and merit awards were often tightly intertwined. No idea if it’s still the case. I’ve been surprised at the increase in merit awards at LACs this season. Back in the day when my older kids were applying to college, getting a $5k non need award was about the limit unless the student had very high stats.
Always ask how the financial aid resets are for years after freshman year. A lot of schools are not so generous about adjusting aid when a sibling enters college, though they may make the full adjustment of thsts the case freshman year. Merit money is also way more available freshman year though departmental funds and other opportunities do crop up in later years. Kids can apply for RA jobs, live off campus cheaper, work in the cafeteria, etc. mine have done all of that. We were never eligible for need based financial aid, so any money had to be from funds designated otherwise.
A difference between merit money that is not based on need and that which is, often comes down to the source. I’ve found that the need based funds are distributed by the financial aid offices, whereas the non need based monies come from Admissions. Not always the case, and at a number of schools, it’s all one office, but for most of my kids, it was separate. We negotiated some awards with Admissions, but at those colleges, any need based grants, loans or work study went through Financial Aid.