Net Price Calculators

Here are some timely Thursday Thoughts with the FAFSA opening this Saturday. As your child is researching schools, you definitely want to be researching what the schools will cost you, not what the sticker price is. By law, all colleges need to have a net price calculator on their website. Some of these are better than others. (If you would like to know if a particular school’s NPC is a good one, feel free to ask me.) I just did an assignment for my financial aid class in which I researched the actual costs of various schools. It really blew my mind! The bottom line is this. Before you discount a school as being too expensive for your child, check out that school’s net price calculator! It was shocking to me how much below the sticker price many schools went! Schools knocked from $30-$45k off the sticker price just like that! The only school that didn’t knock one dollar off was the in state public school that I tried (UF). Some people think a main benefit of in state public schools is that they’re more affordable. You might be surprised at how close the price of a private school comes to that big state school!

On a similar note, if you think your earnings are too high that it makes no sense for you to fill out the FAFSA, you absolutely should fill it out! You never know what school might choose to give your child some funding. There is certainly room for negotiation with many schools. Also, some scholarships might require it to be filled out. There are plenty of experts who believe you should fill the FAFSA out as close to October 1 as possible since some funds are given on a first come, first served basis. Everyone should fill out the FAFSA unless your child has a trust fund. If you have questions about any of this, just ask!