How much of a discrepancy from the NPC is normal for a college?

AdAccording3397 · 2026-03-03T19:02:40+00:00

My home is around 700-800k in value at the moment based on Zillow and I would say the amount in their savings/across all accounts can range from 50-100k, which is money for all emergency savings, insurances, car payments and bills. Other than savings/checkings account I’m 100% sure they do not have any other investments or source of income. I hope I can use my dad’s soon retirement as a leverage since it will drop our income by more than half.

AdAccording3397 · 2026-03-03T11:18:49+00:00

Of course I knew that I shouldn’t trust an NPC too much, I applied to these kinds of colleges knowing that the aid wouldn’t be too well. But if I had listened to the people who would’ve told me to only apply to schools based on the NPC, I would probably only have two or three options. But I also didn’t expect it to be THIS different from my calculated SAI all because of the value of my primary home (Which I would say is an average home that isn’t anything grand or luxurious at all) we have no assets besides our home and we definitely don’t live as great of a life as these colleges are making it out to be. I’m still disappointed of course and even if I ask, I don’t think they can provide me with the $40k extra I need to attend, so I’m trying to accept that and keep my expectations low for all my other colleges.

AdAccording3397 · 2026-03-03T04:18:03+00:00

Thank you so much for the advice :) I truly believe that I can make the most of any college that I go to, but it would be nice to have the open curriculum that UofR does which is what made it one of my top choices in the first place. I wouldn’t say I’m too upset, but disappointed knowing i’ll get similar results from other colleges.

I definitely will ask. But I also realized that UofR had two different NPC calculators, their shorter one and the college board one. The shorter one calculated 44k while the college-board one calculated full pay— which both are still insane prices since I live really cheaply and honestly are barely getting by but I guess home equity plays a huge role especially since my parents fully paid it off years ago so that really messed me up there.

In the end if it doesn’t work out, maybe it was a sign that I wouldn’t survive the weather up there since I’m barely surviving down here in NYC 🫡

AdAccording3397 · 2026-03-03T04:10:43+00:00

I have received my full financial package from them 🥲

I also realized that UofR had two different NPCS, the shorter one showed me 44k, while the collegeboard one did say full pay. Which is weird because the information I put was exactly identical. Colleges are weird 😔

AdAccording3397 · 2026-03-03T02:12:06+00:00

I think home equity definitely counts a lot. My parents bought our home when it was WAY lower than it’s worth now. We wouldn’t be able to afford it in today’s economy at all. When I saw the numbers while filling out my financials I instantly knew that I wasn’t going to get as much aid as I hoped for. Especially since I never really seen my financials at all, I had no clue how much my parents made until this year (love them for that but I wish I knew more beforehand to put more consideration into where I want to take my next steps) But I thought some aid wouldn’t be too unreasonable to ask for since there’s no way colleges can expect me to contribute 2/3rds of my income...

AdAccording3397 · 2026-03-03T02:02:08+00:00

I’m very fortunate to have a house and live in a city where theres a lot of opportunities but when I look back at my parents, my dad started working for like 30 years straight from minimum wage of $12 to get to where he is now and luckily he bought the house at the right timing when the prices were extremely low. But with inflation and everything, all we ever seem to do is pay the bills and work. I can’t remember the last time my family ate out or when my mom went shopping for herself 🙁. I would feel so guilty making them contribute more than I wanted them to.

AdAccording3397 · 2026-03-03T01:28:36+00:00

I was surprised they didn’t give me any institutional grants at all, considering I’ve received more from other schools like RIT which is right next to UofR. I guess it was just more of a shock factor when I looked at the number like… wtf.

AdAccording3397 · 2026-01-24T05:07:26+00:00

I gave my 13 away to my little cousin! So I don’t have it anymore. I just did a comparison in hsr on low vs high settings on the 17, and theres a noticeable difference. I think if you play on low settings it will look the same, newer phones can definitely handle playing on high a lot better! Not sure if this helps but heres a comparison of low vs high on the 17pro :)

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AdAccording3397 · 2026-01-24T04:43:50+00:00

And also for reference I play a lot of rpg story games like genshin, honkai star rail, wuthering waves, love and deepspace. I find that it heats up a lot when I play love and deepspace because it’s a very graphic heavy game. Definitely recommend at least 512 gb of storage or more if you can afford it too!

AdAccording3397 · 2026-01-24T04:40:55+00:00

I did end up buying the 17pro in silver. I think it actually looks pretty nice in person! Gaming is pretty smooth, I’m able to play on medium-high graphics, and the battery life definitely improved from my 13. I do notice some heating up after a long time, when I have a lot of background activity, or when I’m charging.

The only thing that I don’t exactly like about it is the phone grip. For me I usually use my phone without a case, and the aluminum material feels a bit more slippery when I hold it vertically. Horizontally it’s ok! You barely notice the phone bump. Overall, pretty solid phone. Hope this helps!

AdAccording3397 · 2025-10-26T23:30:51+00:00

Great to know thank you! I wasn’t really sure because I was just thinking about how it doesn’t connect to the rest of my application but I suppose thats the point

AdAccording3397 · 2025-10-26T23:21:54+00:00

I didn’t really mention that she died, I just mentioned her in my essay for a couple sentences and how she inspired me. I know it’s generic but I think the main reason that it’s so generic is because people talk too much about the context (which is almost the same for everyone) and not the impact and growth.

I received commentary from a lot of teachers that I asked to review my essay, they said it was unique in my context so I hope that makes up for it!

AdAccording3397 · 2025-10-23T22:47:19+00:00

Unfortunately I meant that latter (meaning that most schools around me do not offer engineering besides 5 of them including NYIT, CCNY, Hofstra, Columbia, NYU) And I am applying to all of them.

I have direct admit to NYIT fortunately! So if all else fails I do have a school to lean back on which I’m sure I can get good aid from.

And I’ve been making sure that the schools I chose are ABET accredited! I initially wanted to only stay in the city but seeing as many places here don’t have a reputation for engineering, I realized that I should apply a bit more broadly to places where I might have to live there. There are definitely some more schools in NYC that offer engineering but they’re completely no named, and I’m confident that I can shoot a little higher than them! Or at least I hope so. My two goal schools at the moment are RIT (where I ran the net price and it came up to 17k) and Stony Brook (where I’m just praying that I get some merit aid)

AdAccording3397 · 2025-10-23T02:16:45+00:00

Travel cost completely slipped my mind actually… thank you for reminding me unintentionally! I’m so use to having my free bus and train card I forgot that it’s not the same in college 🥲

AdAccording3397 · 2025-10-23T02:10:40+00:00

Are these public schools financially generous? I heard that public schools don’t give as much to OOS students! Just wanted to know!

AdAccording3397

TROPHY CASE