Am I doing NPC wrong? Shows decent $$

[Anonymous]

This is OP. Stunned at differences in aid (or not) from different schools! Eg Williams estimates we can pay $38000, Haverford is $66000, and northwestern is $90000.

At least we can cross northwestern off the list!

[Anonymous]

This thread is strong evidence that the “donut hole” card is way overplayed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will do. We’ll have 3 in for one year and 2 in for 3 years, so I’ll check them all. Thank you for suggestion. Since NPC didn’t specifically ask about kids in college (whereas CSS asked what types of college), I wasn’t sure that was taken into account for all schools.

To be clear, the FAFSA used to do as some say and calculate a family contribution and divide that amount by the number of kids in college to get your contribution per student.

However, last year, FAFSA was revised, and it now only indicates what a family can pay towards college. Now, it’s up to each college to either use that full family budget or divide it by the number of kids in college.

Some colleges chose to maintain the old system for kids already enrolled, but not for new admits. UVA is one of those schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. Stunned at differences in aid (or not) from different schools! Eg Williams estimates we can pay $38000, Haverford is $66000, and northwestern is $90000.

At least we can cross northwestern off the list!

Well-endowed LACs may give better aid than well-endowed research universities this year and in the near future due to the revised tax on investment income. Schools with fewer than 3k students are exempt from the tax, regardless of endowment size.

For some of prominent universities, this tax is estimated to be larger than their entire financial aid budget.

These same research universities are also dealing with a large loss of federal research funds.

All in, many Top 20 schools may have to reevaluate their financial aid generosity, but the best LACs will continue to meet most need with grants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s because you’ll have three kids in school. Roughly, they determine how much a family can pay towards college in a given year and divide that number by the number of kids attending school that year. Retirement funds don’t count toward your contribution and many privates don’t include home equity. In sum, your assets are inapplicable here, and your income, while significant, is countered by the large number of kids in college at the same time. Just beware that need-based grants are reevaluated yearly. If your other two kids graduate college in a year, your third will be the only student and you could go from paying $50k to full freight.

This. In their eyes, you basically have a good income, zero assets, and three kids in college at the same time. Makes sense the calculator would give you something.

They have $400K in savings (liquid) though?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s because you’ll have three kids in school. Roughly, they determine how much a family can pay towards college in a given year and divide that number by the number of kids attending school that year. Retirement funds don’t count toward your contribution and many privates don’t include home equity. In sum, your assets are inapplicable here, and your income, while significant, is countered by the large number of kids in college at the same time. Just beware that need-based grants are reevaluated yearly. If your other two kids graduate college in a year, your third will be the only student and you could go from paying $50k to full freight.

This. In their eyes, you basically have a good income, zero assets, and three kids in college at the same time. Makes sense the calculator would give you something.

They have $400K in savings (liquid) though?

Is the $400K in 529 account?

[Anonymous]

The siblings close in age privilege is insane, and some schools don't do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Income of $310; 2 other kids in college; house worth $630 (obv not DMV) - owe $325k; have $400k savings (but $$$ in retirement).

Figured we’d get very little, but the NPC says we’ll pay $50k instead of $92k (looking only at meets need schools). Does this sound right? Friends who I think make less in salary talk about how they got no $$$. Are we just much poorer than I realize?

No it doesn’t look right. We make 250k and most colleges think we can pay way over 50k. I ran the NPC for around 40-50 colleges one weekend. Without substantial merit we could not afford any private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s because you’ll have three kids in school. Roughly, they determine how much a family can pay towards college in a given year and divide that number by the number of kids attending school that year. Retirement funds don’t count toward your contribution and many privates don’t include home equity. In sum, your assets are inapplicable here, and your income, while significant, is countered by the large number of kids in college at the same time. Just beware that need-based grants are reevaluated yearly. If your other two kids graduate college in a year, your third will be the only student and you could go from paying $50k to full freight.

This. In their eyes, you basically have a good income, zero assets, and three kids in college at the same time. Makes sense the calculator would give you something.

They have $400K in savings (liquid) though?

Is the $400K in 529 account?

$400k includes some 529 $$

The other thing is that the NPC asks what type of college kid is in (private/public). Does anyone know whether schools that care about multiple kids in college will ask more specific questions such as what we pay for each kid? One kid is full Banneker/Key, so should I just say we only have 1 in college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. Stunned at differences in aid (or not) from different schools! Eg Williams estimates we can pay $38000, Haverford is $66000, and northwestern is $90000.

At least we can cross northwestern off the list!

Well-endowed LACs may give better aid than well-endowed research universities this year and in the near future due to the revised tax on investment income. Schools with fewer than 3k students are exempt from the tax, regardless of endowment size.

For some of prominent universities, this tax is estimated to be larger than their entire financial aid budget.

These same research universities are also dealing with a large loss of federal research funds.

All in, many Top 20 schools may have to reevaluate their financial aid generosity, but the best LACs will continue to meet most need with grants.

These parts are mostly not accurate under the revised bill that passed. Maybe only a dozen schools are affected at higher rates than they face now, and those higher rates (4% and 8%) are a lot lower than what was originally proposed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s because you’ll have three kids in school. Roughly, they determine how much a family can pay towards college in a given year and divide that number by the number of kids attending school that year. Retirement funds don’t count toward your contribution and many privates don’t include home equity. In sum, your assets are inapplicable here, and your income, while significant, is countered by the large number of kids in college at the same time. Just beware that need-based grants are reevaluated yearly. If your other two kids graduate college in a year, your third will be the only student and you could go from paying $50k to full freight.

This. In their eyes, you basically have a good income, zero assets, and three kids in college at the same time. Makes sense the calculator would give you something.

They have $400K in savings (liquid) though?

OP said that was money in retirement, which wouldn’t be counted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s because you’ll have three kids in school. Roughly, they determine how much a family can pay towards college in a given year and divide that number by the number of kids attending school that year. Retirement funds don’t count toward your contribution and many privates don’t include home equity. In sum, your assets are inapplicable here, and your income, while significant, is countered by the large number of kids in college at the same time. Just beware that need-based grants are reevaluated yearly. If your other two kids graduate college in a year, your third will be the only student and you could go from paying $50k to full freight.

This. In their eyes, you basically have a good income, zero assets, and three kids in college at the same time. Makes sense the calculator would give you something.

They have $400K in savings (liquid) though?

OP said that was money in retirement, which wouldn’t be counted.

That was not clear, and above, OP said the $400K included some 529 money. I would be cautious in thinking this estimate is accurate, OP. Maybe contact financial aid office?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s because you’ll have three kids in school. Roughly, they determine how much a family can pay towards college in a given year and divide that number by the number of kids attending school that year. Retirement funds don’t count toward your contribution and many privates don’t include home equity. In sum, your assets are inapplicable here, and your income, while significant, is countered by the large number of kids in college at the same time. Just beware that need-based grants are reevaluated yearly. If your other two kids graduate college in a year, your third will be the only student and you could go from paying $50k to full freight.

This. In their eyes, you basically have a good income, zero assets, and three kids in college at the same time. Makes sense the calculator would give you something.

They have $400K in savings (liquid) though?

OP said that was money in retirement, which wouldn’t be counted.

That was not clear, and above, OP said the $400K included some 529 money. I would be cautious in thinking this estimate is accurate, OP. Maybe contact financial aid office?

Even if the $400k is all non-retirement, it’s likely still accurate. Having two other kids in college at the same time significantly reduces your total contribution. I put all of this into Harvard’s NPC (because it’s easy) and it kicked out a $50k total cost, with a $40k scholarship. If you include the home equity as an other asset, you still get a $33k scholarship.

The main factor is the number of kids in college. They assume you pay your expected contribution for each. So if the NPC says your contribution is $50k, it’s really assuming you are paying $150k total across all kids.

[Anonymous]

This is OP - 400k does not include retirement funds. It is, in fact, $$ for college. I’m going to do npc again, from scratch, today.
Also wondered that Fafsa asked specifically how much we pay for each kid already in college while npc just asks what type of college. One kid has full ride, which is not captured by npc. Will schools look at Fafsa and discount? Or do they just look at npc? Anyone know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP - 400k does not include retirement funds. It is, in fact, $$ for college. I’m going to do npc again, from scratch, today.
Also wondered that Fafsa asked specifically how much we pay for each kid already in college while npc just asks what type of college. One kid has full ride, which is not captured by npc. Will schools look at Fafsa and discount? Or do they just look at npc? Anyone know?

Schools that give serious money use the College Board’s CSS profile, which is much more detailed than either the FAFSA or the net price calculator, and will likely capture the actual amount you are spending at the other college.