<p>Next fall I will have a senior and freshman both in college. What can I expect the finaid packages to do this year and more importantly next year when the senior graduates. Stanford has offered a fairly nice financial aid package for the upcoming year. What scares me though is that I fear the cost will double when she is the only child still in college. Anybody go through this yet?</p>
<p>The aid formulas factor in for the number in college at the same time-- the theory being that ability of a family to pay for college doesn't double when they have two in college.</p>
<p>FAFSA cuts the parental contribution to the EFC in half when two kids are in college at the same time, so the EFC for freshman + the EFC for senior would be about the same as last years EFC for the (then) Junior (this assumes that each kid's finances are similar, and that your parental income and assets remain similar year to year).</p>
<p>Profile is a little less generous, but makes a similar calculation.</p>
<p>The following year, you'll again have only one in college (like this year), so her EFC will go up (but your college expenses will go down).</p>
<p>I am in the same situation, only I am assuming my son (second child) will get a much more generous package and my daughter ( the soon to be senior) will not get much of an increase. I would not assume they will automatically look at the older child's package and reviewed it. I made a call and the basically told me I had to refile the profile (which I do not have to do every year for her and my son applied to the same school and they had one, another $25.00 yay). They advised me that the FAFSA alone would not genrate a red flag that the older child now had a laower EFC.</p>
<p>Public schools use the FAFSA EFC, so a change in EFC would change your package in most schools</p>