Is CollegeBoard's Net Price Calculator Accurate?

Answered

To my knowledge, all of the College Board's Net Price Calculators are fairly accurate, I'd say within 5% or so. What I learned is that many colleges with a higher academic standard can be less money than applying to a State College. As a rule of thumb, the schools that provide 100% of financial need met are more generous regardless of family income. So if your family makes 200K or more, sometimes 50% of these families still qualify for financial aid. Also, Private institutions that have $1B to $30B in endowment typically have more money to grant to their students.

If you are a single child and your parents make $250K, you probably won't qualify for any grants but you can always get student loans. If you have 2 siblings in private school or college, then the college may be more flexible with financial aid. In my case, applying to William and Mary or UCLA is more expensive than applying to an Ivy League school because I'm out of state applying to a State college. The other thing I would do is use the NPC on the college websites that are not on the College Board to make sure you have all bases covered. I think only 50% of the top 100 schools are on CollegeBoard so you have to find the NPC and they look and feel a little bit different than the CB ones and they also take 10-20 minutes longer. Hope that helps.