"Many people already know what their EFC is likely to be because they've run another NPC, or they have another kid in school, or their kid is transferring. So, this is a double check. I once ran a NPC calculator where I put in an extra zero. So, it predicted that on my income of $60K, I could pay more than $60K in tuition. If the school had just said "no aid for you!" I might have assumed it was because of his stats, but seeing that the EFC was obviously wrong, I knew to run it again."

This

The school is just preparing you for the inevitable tuition hike. Kidding. Not kidding.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. What I don't understand is why it would tell me our family contribution (with 1 kid in college) is more than the total price is. I would think it would just say, yep, you're paying full freight, but the max is what the max is.

OP, just read the directions carefully.

You are one person with one set of circumstances. Contrary to your obvious beliefs, yours are not the only circumstances they have designed the system for.


And really is it that hard to say to yourself "111>67. Therefore I must pay the full 67."?

This is a really unhelpful answer and I'm not sure what motivated you in posting it. Our oldest is going into his senior year so we are digging into the NPC and trying to figure out if we are doing it correctly or whether we've misinterpreted the spectacularly limited directions, which might explain why I got an answer I wasn't expecting. Where exactly are you reading my "obvious beliefs" that I'm looking for special treatment for my family? I'm not. I'm trying to figure out if I did it correctly or not, from people who have BTDT. An honest question that did not deserve your snark.

I think there are several reasons why they do this.

1) Many people already know what their EFC is likely to be because they've run another NPC, or they have another kid in school, or their kid is transferring. So, this is a double check. I once ran a NPC calculator where I put in an extra zero. So, it predicted that on my income of $60K, I could pay more than $60K in tuition. If the school had just said "no aid for you!" I might have assumed it was because of his stats, but seeing that the EFC was obviously wrong, I knew to run it again.

2) Knowing your EFC is helpful, since it's stable across schools. If you know your EFC is over $100K, then you don't need to run NPC's at schools that don't give merit aid (or don't calculate merit aid in the NPC) and have tuitions significantly below your EFC, because you know you'll be full pay.

3) Knowing your EFC helps you anticipate how it will change when you have another kid or retire or something.

"Expected Family Contribution" is a standardized term that exist across colleges/universities (though colleges vary slightly in how they calculate depending on their use of the CSS profile). So colleges provide their estimate of your EFC separate from the cost of the college so you can get info for what someone of your financial standing is likely to have to contribute to any college/university. So if you have one child in college you are not likely to receive any financial aid no matter where you apply, but if you have two in college you may receive some at private institutions.

It's easy to get lost in all the calculators and terms, but basically that result tells you you're not going to get financial aid so if you need some start looking for colleges that provide merit aid, researching alternative funding strategies, choosing colleges within your budget.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. What I don't understand is why it would tell me our family contribution (with 1 kid in college) is more than the total price is. I would think it would just say, yep, you're paying full freight, but the max is what the max is.

OP, just read the directions carefully.

You are one person with one set of circumstances. Contrary to your obvious beliefs, yours are not the only circumstances they have designed the system for.


And really is it that hard to say to yourself "111>67. Therefore I must pay the full 67."?

This is a really unhelpful answer and I'm not sure what motivated you in posting it. Our oldest is going into his senior year so we are digging into the NPC and trying to figure out if we are doing it correctly or whether we've misinterpreted the spectacularly limited directions, which might explain why I got an answer I wasn't expecting. Where exactly are you reading my "obvious beliefs" that I'm looking for special treatment for my family? I'm not. I'm trying to figure out if I did it correctly or not, from people who have BTDT. An honest question that did not deserve your snark.

Sometimes the colleges do make mistakes when configuring the NPC. Just call the financial aid office and ask them to walk it through with you.

You may be doing a service to others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. What I don't understand is why it would tell me our family contribution (with 1 kid in college) is more than the total price is. I would think it would just say, yep, you're paying full freight, but the max is what the max is.

OP, just read the directions carefully.

You are one person with one set of circumstances. Contrary to your obvious beliefs, yours are not the only circumstances they have designed the system for.


And really is it that hard to say to yourself "111>67. Therefore I must pay the full 67."?

This is a really unhelpful answer and I'm not sure what motivated you in posting it. Our oldest is going into his senior year so we are digging into the NPC and trying to figure out if we are doing it correctly or whether we've misinterpreted the spectacularly limited directions, which might explain why I got an answer I wasn't expecting. Where exactly are you reading my "obvious beliefs" that I'm looking for special treatment for my family? I'm not. I'm trying to figure out if I did it correctly or not, from people who have BTDT. An honest question that did not deserve your snark.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. What I don't understand is why it would tell me our family contribution (with 1 kid in college) is more than the total price is. I would think it would just say, yep, you're paying full freight, but the max is what the max is.

It helps for people with multiple kids in college figure out what the total is.

and for people who will have multiple kids in future years but do not right now.

Bingo. Your EFC is also independent of the school you attend, so it would be really confusing if your EFC showed as drastically different based on which school you were interested in. The EFC is going to be the roughly the same if you attend GW or UMD. If your EFC is greater than the cost to attend, you’re most likely gonna pay full freight, less any merit aid.

which is another way of saying

"read the directions. your family's circumstances are not the only set of circumstances. the calculator is designed to provide information to the maximum number of circumstances - some of which are not yours"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. What I don't understand is why it would tell me our family contribution (with 1 kid in college) is more than the total price is. I would think it would just say, yep, you're paying full freight, but the max is what the max is.

It helps for people with multiple kids in college figure out what the total is.

and for people who will have multiple kids in future years but do not right now.

Bingo. Your EFC is also independent of the school you attend, so it would be really confusing if your EFC showed as drastically different based on which school you were interested in. The EFC is going to be the roughly the same if you attend GW or UMD. If your EFC is greater than the cost to attend, you’re most likely gonna pay full freight, less any merit aid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. What I don't understand is why it would tell me our family contribution (with 1 kid in college) is more than the total price is. I would think it would just say, yep, you're paying full freight, but the max is what the max is.

It helps for people with multiple kids in college figure out what the total is.

and for people who will have multiple kids in future years but do not right now.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. What I don't understand is why it would tell me our family contribution (with 1 kid in college) is more than the total price is. I would think it would just say, yep, you're paying full freight, but the max is what the max is.

OP, just read the directions carefully.

You are one person with one set of circumstances. Contrary to your obvious beliefs, yours are not the only circumstances they have designed the system for.


And really is it that hard to say to yourself "111>67. Therefore I must pay the full 67."?

Anonymous wrote:OP here. What I don't understand is why it would tell me our family contribution (with 1 kid in college) is more than the total price is. I would think it would just say, yep, you're paying full freight, but the max is what the max is.

It helps for people with multiple kids in college figure out what the total is.

OP here. What I don't understand is why it would tell me our family contribution (with 1 kid in college) is more than the total price is. I would think it would just say, yep, you're paying full freight, but the max is what the max is.

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what we're doing wrong on the couple of NPCs we have tried (and the little question mark fly-out bubbles are not all that helpful). We are getting results that say that (to take U. Mich. Ann Arbor out of state) as an example, the estimated net price is $64K and the calculated family contribution is $111K. Any ideas on why the calculator would generate a parent contribution that's so far above what the place actually costs?

What that means is that $111 is the net price calculator for someone with your characteristics. Michigan won't be giving you financial aid.

What it also tells people similar to you is that if they were to have two kids, instead of one in school, there's be some financial aid, which is a useful guide.

I assume your family income is somewhere around $300k.

I think you may have misunderstood what expected family contribution means. Simplistically, it is what you're expected to pay before finaid kicks in.
For the numbers you provided, for one kid, you'd pay sticker price. For 2 kids, you'd get a slight break

I'm not sure what we're doing wrong on the couple of NPCs we have tried (and the little question mark fly-out bubbles are not all that helpful). We are getting results that say that (to take U. Mich. Ann Arbor out of state) as an example, the estimated net price is $64K and the calculated family contribution is $111K. Any ideas on why the calculator would generate a parent contribution that's so far above what the place actually costs?