2 kids in college, 1 @ CSS profile school, other @ FAFSA university

Paying for College
1

<p>How is financial aid determined if you have one kid at a FAFSA school and one kid at a CSS profile school?</p>

<p>When D applied (and before I found CC), we used the EFC from the FAFSA to determine what we would contribute. Due to a home based business and home equity our EFC from the schools was 20k more than the FAFSA. That was a really nasty shock to learn about on April 1.</p>

<p>Now with our son getting ready to apply, we really want to know what our EFC will be. Some of the schools he really likes are FAFSA only. Since the EFC is so different between the Fafsa and CSS profile for us, how do we know where we stand? Son is thinking of applying ED to 1 school, but this worries me since we don't known where we are with financial aid.</p>

2

<p>If his school doesn’t meet need, then there’s no way to tell what he might get. He may only get a student loan and some work-study. </p>

<p>And with your D’s CSS school, your contribution won’t split in half, CSS schools use a 60/60 formula.</p>

<p>What school is he thinking of applying ED to that is FAFSA only (please don’t say NYU…the school notorious with BAD aid…and please don’t say an OOS public). </p>

<p>I wouldn’t have my son apply ED to any school unless he simultaneously applied to some rolling schools that give big assured merit. Then you’d at least be able to compare those aid situations before accepting an ED offer.</p>

<p>Does your D’s school promise to meet need? If not, that is another potential problem.</p>

<p>How much do you have to pay for your D’s school?</p>

<p>you need to proceed with extreme caution, otherwise you could end up having to pay some huge amounts for 2 kids.</p>

3

<p>It’s very difficult to generalize because Profile schools are so different in what they consider to be assets, so awards can vary wildly. There’s no Profile EFC per se. Profile schools also consider the expense of the sibling differently; some will ask for documentation of the sibling’s cost of attendance, while others will ignore it and just assume the student’s need is 50-60% of the total family need.</p>

<p>It sounds like your older D is at a Profile school? You should be able to ask them directly what the effect of having a sibling in college will be on her financial aid, and if it makes a difference if the S goes to a private vs public college.</p>

<p>For your son, his FAFSA EFC will be modified based on the number of family members in college, so it will be approximately half of last year’s when it was only your D in college assuming income/assets are the same. For Profile schools, unless the school has its own online calculator, it’s difficult to determine ahead of time what they will consider your need to be.</p>

<p>If you’re comfortable paying the current cost of your D’s college plus the calculated FAFSA EFC of your son’s ED choice, and if your son’s ED choice is FAFSA only and guarantees to meet full need, then he should be ok applying ED. If any variable is missing (can’t pay the FAFSA EFC of your son while paying the same cost for D as last year, school doesn’t meet full need, school requires Profile, etc) then you need to parse the potential changes to your D’s award and the likely award from your S’s school more carefully to make sure it can all work financially for you.</p>

4

<p>From previous posts, it looks like the OP’s son is looking at OOS publics like Purdue, UIUC, and other schools that don’t meet need…and won’t give much aid to OOS students. </p>

<p>It looks like he has good, but not top scores (in the 600s) and a 3.6 GPA.</p>

<p>What engineering schools do you recommend for the 3.6 UW GPA student with more moderate test scores–like 600s not 700s. My son has some good engineering ECs and is a really hard worker taking a challenging curriculum including 7 APs total. His class rank is top 28% b</p>

<p>If that’s the case, then EFC means NOTHING to those schools unless your EFC is so low that you get a Pell Grant or something…which it doesn’t sound like you’d qualify for. </p>

<p>Since it sounds like you’re already pushed to the limits with your D’s tuition, I strongly recommend that you have your son apply to some schools that will give him large merit for his stats…otherwise you could find yourselves with big bills for both kids. </p>

<p>This may be unpleasant news, but it’s best to learn this all now while there’s time to adjust the thinking to find affordable choices. You’re in a touchy situation because D’s school costs so much…and you may not be able to afford paying that entire cost plus more money for your son’s college costs. It’s not a “2 for 1” deal in college…especially when one school is CSS and the other is a FAFSA only school and/or OOS public.</p>

<p>Is your son going to test again. He should take both the SAT and ACT</p>

<p>Do NOT waste your time with any OOS publics like UIUC or Purdue. They won’t give him merit scholarship and they won’t give him need based aid. OOS publics don’t typically give need based aid to cover OOS costs…that’s why they charge OOS costs. It wouldn’t make sense to then cover them with need-based aid.</p>

<p>You know what you’re paying for your D. How much more can you pay for your son’s college costs? </p>

<p>however, some schools will give merit scholarships. :slight_smile: What is his M+CR SAT?</p>

5

<p>As you have discovered, the official EFC given by FAFSA is not really good for anything other than determining PELL eligibility and possible Stafford interest subsidy. Few schools, if any, guarantee to meet need using FAFSA only. </p>

<p>The fact of the matter, however, is that few schools guarantee to meet need regardless of what the financial form is that they require. Those schools that use PROFILE have their own definition of need, and most do not guarantee to meet it. Those that do, do not all meet it with grants either. It’s the most selective schools that tend to meet full need with grants only and getting into one of them is not easy. </p>

<p>Basically, the chances of having a greater portion of ones need met are better if the student is in the top range of the school’s test scores. This goes for financial as well as merit aid. </p>

<p>Does your D’s school guarantee to meet full need? If not, they may not even take into consideration a second student. They certainly do not have to do so. Many do, but how they do so in their formulas vary widely. They pretty much can do what they please.</p>

6

<p>Thanks for all of the info, this is really helpful. </p>

<p>My son does like some of his in state public options. The ED schools he is looking at are both private and are CSS profile schools. But, many of the in state and out of state publics have rolling admissions, so we would know where we are there pretty quickly–we may even know before having to apply ED.</p>

<p>My D’s school does meet need, but gave us only unsubsidized loans, so the COA was $56K this year, less the $5500 for her loan. Her expenses were more than that though becuase her school charges for everything–copies, PE classes, use of the student gym, and engineering books are not cheap, etc. Tuition has gone up 5% for next year so it will be worse. Our FAFSA said our EFC was 35K. We had no idea the CSS profile would be so different.</p>

<p>I have no idea how her school will see the situation once two are in school. The only out of state public we would consider is Purdue–because of the strength of their program and the out of state costs are better than most for OOS publics. They do give some merit aid, but I have no idea if he would even qualify. UIUC would cost more than nearly any private school in the country because of the engineering fees that they charge and the OOS cost so that is off the table.</p>

<p>We are trying to determine what our expected costs would be if both go private, vs one at a private and the other at in state public. Hopefully my D’s school can give us some advice…</p>

<p>He is scheduled for the ACT again. He is not a great timed test taker. We did do a special test by Princeton Review that had segments of both ACT and SAT on it. He did better on the ACT. Unfortunately, his scores don’t match his understaning and mastery. He is a slower reader so the timed tests really hurt him.</p>

7

<p>But, many of the in state and out of state publics have rolling admissions, so we would know where we are there pretty quickly–we may even know before having to apply ED.</p>

<p>Not sure what you mean.</p>

<p>For most rolling schools, all you would know is whether you were accepted. For most, you wouldn’t get FA packages until spring. And, for most OOS publics…the only need-based aid you’d get is a loan.</p>

<p>A few schools will award merit scholarships early, but most won’t. Most will wait til spring to award merit…especially if their merit is competitive.</p>

<p>That’s why I mentioned applying early to a few rolling schools that have ASSURED merit for stats…at least you’d know about that merit. </p>

<p>*My D’s school does meet need, but gave us only unsubsidized loans, so the COA was $56K this year, less the $5500 for her loan. *</p>

<p>You need to check on that. Since you ONLY got unsub loans, that could mean that your real CSS Profile contribution was determined to be higher than COA. It’s possible since you weren’t given a small sub loan that you were determined to have no need at all. </p>

<p>Since CSS doesn’t give a “family contribution” that exceeds COA, so that can mean that even with 2 in school, you may not get the desired 60/60 split. :(</p>

<p>Last spring a parent posted that they got similar aid for their one child at an elite that met need. So, when Child #2 was accepted to the same school, they thought that they would pay 60/60 for the two in school. When they got the aid packages they were expected to pay 75/75…because their “real CSS EFC” was much higher than COA for one child…that possibility had never been explained to them. </p>

<p>*The only out of state public we would consider is Purdue–because of the strength of their program and the **out of state costs are better than most for OOS publics. They do give some merit aid, but I have no idea if he would even qualify. ***</p>

<p>Purdue costs about $40k per year for OOS students. I don’t think that’s less than most OOS publics. It may be less than some, but not most. Many OOS publics have COAs running from $25k-35k. </p>

<p>If your son retests and gets his SAT above 2100, then he might have a chance at about $10k per year from Purdue. Last spring, those with 2150+ got about $10k per year. That would leave your costs at about $30k per year.</p>

<p>Our FAFSA said our EFC was 35K. We had no idea the CSS profile would be so different.</p>

<p>It can be very different when you’re self-employed, have equity, or some situation that FAFSA treats differently. </p>

<p>Self-employed people complain frequently because some/many of their deductions are “added back in” as income at CSS schools. </p>

<p>Those with non-custodial parents often get really big shocks when their CSS contribution is much, much higher than FAFSA EFC!</p>

<p>I strongly suggest that your son protect himself by retesting and applying to a few schools where he’d get some **assured **merit scholarships. Hopefully, those schools won’t be needed. :slight_smile: BUT…since there’s a chance you could end up with large family contribution expectations for 2 kids, you need that safety net. </p>

<p>Does either of his ED schools promise to meet need without large loans? There are many CSS schools that don’t meet need.</p>

<p>Tip about his reading…have your son silently read a paragraph to himself. Ask him if he’s silently pronouncing each word in his head. If so, that may be why his reading is slowed. He needs to retrain himself not to “pronounce” words in his head. He needs to just let his eyes glide across the sentence “absorbing” the words. Some use a moving pointer finger to force their eyes to glide faster to eliminate that “pronouncing” habit.</p>

8

<p>Do talk to your daughter’s school’s fin aid officers. They can give you a good idea how they do the split. Also ask them what number they got in terms of what they expected you as a family to pay. If you have need according to FAFSA, you should be getting a portion of that Stafford’s interest subsidized while your daughter’s in school. since that subsidy is based on the FAFSA EFC, not the school’s numbers. That’s federal money, not the college’s that your D is getting.</p>