Logically it seems like this would be the case, but I can’t find any mention of it on previous College Confidential threads.
Yes, but their definition of what you need may also change so you may have to pay more in later years.
Your aid will increase…but most of these schools also increase your student contribution each year. Theynexoect the students to contribute something!
Also, if you attend a school that gives Loans as part of their packaging, you are eligible for a larger loan each year.
Also, is income and assets going to be the same each year?
Yes, I can’t think of any reason why income or assets would significantly change for my family.
What we’ve found is that the ‘formula’ will stay the same or at least consistent for the same student year-after-year. Generally speaking, a 100%-need-met school will start requiring a student contribution from summer earnings (~2k) after the freshman year, and the loans (unless ‘no loan FA’) will go up each year as well. So the net price tends to go up incrementally. Our kids’ aid has remained very predictable.
But for different students starting in different years at the SAME SCHOOL, the formula may be different for the two students. This happened to two of my kids at two different schools … because the schools had to adjust their formulas (as you can imagine, this resulted in less aid).
then there are other schools that use ‘bait and switch’ by giving more aid the freshman year and then take it away. I’ve only heard of these and can’t give examples. you can research the average percent of need met for freshmen and compare that number to the whole UG group. The bigger the spread, the bigger the risk. But other factors such as strict merit aid renewal rules and no aid for transfers may factor in. collegedata.com is a good resource for research.