<p>Our son is currently in the final throes of deciding between Swarthmore, Grinnell and Whitman. His first choice is Swat, but because they offer only need based aid, there is a huge financial difference between Swathmore and the other two (likely 80-100K over 4 years). In determining what the cost difference will actually be, we are trying to account for the fact that his sister will be one year behind him entering college.</p>
<p>We have been told that the expected family contribution (now around 35K at Swarthmore), will be reduced substantially for the three years that his sister is in school as well. Does anyone know how much it tends to decrease? Kenyon told us it tends to go down about 35% to 40%.</p>
<p>Might anyone know how to think about what the reduction in family contribution would be when a second child enters college? I know it will not be cut in half but have no sense of what it would be. The Swarthmore Financial Aid office has been rather unhelpful.</p>
<p>The figure given “35% to 40%” seems about right with my experience. I, too, had assumed that my 1st child’s EFC would be halved when the second enters, but that has not been the case, at least not in our experience. Time to liquidate some of those savings :)</p>
<p>Try it yourself! Use Swarthmore’s (btw, am i spelling it wrong? why is it shortened to swat? lol) net price calculator and put your daughter in it as attending college. </p>
<p>I put in my numbers, only changing if there is another person in college and it only decreased the determined family contribution by about 22.5% (with another person in college) specifically for swarthmore. Though this could be a sliding scale type of calculator, so who knows!</p>
<p>Ignoring the financial aspects of it, I really like Whitman and have visited several times (for my S’s debate tournaments every year). I can give you some feedback from that perspective if you want it.</p>
<p>Our experience when we had an overlap year was about 60/40 and not 50/50. We had 6 acceptance packages to look over while of course the older son was starting his senior year at the college he had been attending where we were full pay. the 60/40 did bring us alittle below the COA so his senior year package included a subsidized Stafford and a Perkins which was nice on some level. It depends ALOT on whether the schools in question (both older kid and younger kid) meet need or not, if they don’t meet need the 60/40 could mean not much. YMMV.</p>
<p>I’ve got another overlap for 2013-2014 so it will be interesting to see how that plays out with a different group of colleges.</p>
<p>Our total outlay has not changed much from one in college to two. (Have a jr and soph.) We now pay maybe 20% more. But, among other things, this reflects that the “expected student contribution” rises a bit each year, the amount available through Staffords increases, and tuition has risen (maybe 3-4%, each year.) And, our financial position is a tad better than three years ago.</p>
<p>The Fafsa EFC will be split between the two kids- we have a slight difference because one earns more. You fill out a Fafsa and a CSS for each kid and then the individual colleges’ policies take over.</p>
<p>I have a question about this as well, as S and D will have a 2 year overlap. Suppose Kid #1 had an EFC of, say, $50K, and then Kids #1 and #2 together have an EFC of $60K, but it’s $30K each. Then suppose you are only paying $20K for Kid #1. Could Kid #2 still get aid for costs above $30K, even though you would only be paying net of $50K?</p>
<p>Sylvan – I don’t think your numbers are quite right. Pretend neither of the kids has any assets or income.
With one in college, you might have a FAFSA EFC of $50K.
With two in college, each would have a FAFSA EFC of $25K.
…But if one or both kids attended schools that use Profile, the expected contribution might be $30K each if both schools use the 60% that is common. </p>
<p>Each school then figures out its financial aid package for the based on the enrolling student’s FAFSA EFC or the Profile Contribution. </p>
<p>Federal aid (Pell, Stafford,…) ignores anything but the EFC. School-funded aid at a FAFSA only school will probably ignore the other school’s aid package. (But most FAFSA-only schools do not promise to meet full need.) Profile schools must use the Federal EFC to distribute federal financial aid, but they are free to do as they please with their own grants…and most Profile schools do not meet full need. </p>
<p>Not a very satisfying answer, I’m afraid, but unfortunately you’re into an area that varies a lot school by school.</p>
<p>I think momofthreeboys meant to write that the split is 60/60 for CSS schools that meet need (not 60/40).</p>
<p>(ALL bets are off at schools that don’t meeet need. You can’t count on any discounts).</p>
<p>The philosophy of CSS schools is that while you have 2 in school, you will get a discount, but the overall amount that you’ll pay WILL be more than when you just have one. The thinking is that parents SHOULD pay more for 2 in school.</p>
<p>Of course, if only one of your kids is attending a “meets need” school, and the other is not, don’t expect a discount at the other school. (for this reason, if Child #2 won’t be attending a meets need school, you may need to carefully choose Child #1’s school so that the amount that you’re paying when both are in school is not super high).</p>
<p>So, if you pay $50k for Child #1 at a CSS school that meets need, and then Child #2 starts at a school that meets need, then expect to pay about $60k total. (60% of $50k is $30…so you’re paying 60/60 split).</p>
<p>For FAFSA EFC, the split is about 50/50, but that doesn’t often matter since most FAFSA only schools don’t meet need.</p>
<p>I have a question about this as well, as S and D will have a 2 year overlap. Suppose Kid #1 had an EFC of, say, $50K, and then Kids #1 and #2 together have an EFC of $60K, but it’s $30K each. Then suppose you are only paying $20K for Kid #1. Could Kid #2 still get aid for costs above $30K, even though you would only be paying net of $50K?</p>
<p>Do both of these schools promise to meet need?</p>
<p>Are you saying that Child #2 has assets which is causing your COMBINED EFC for 2 kids to be $60k???</p>
<p>Are you also saying that Child #1 has a $30k per year merit award? And, you’re wondering if Child #2’s school will lessen aid because of that?</p>
<p>Perhaps if would be more clear if you stated each child’s scenario separately and whether each school is FAFSA-only and whether it meets need.</p>
<p>Will Child #2 go to a “need met” school? If not, then there’s no way to predict what would happen. She may get little or nothing other than merit and loans.</p>
<p>Please clarify.</p>
<p>Also…if your son is at a CSS school AND he didn’t qualify for ANY need based aid, that doesn’t necessarily mean that your CSS family contribution was COA. Your CSS family contribution may be huge (because of properties), and you may not have any need with 2 in school. </p>
<p>Many CSS families assume that because they’re told that they have no need that that means that their contribution will go down with 2 in school. They assume that their CSS family contribution was computed to be COA (about $50k or so). Then they find out that they still don’t have much/any need even with 2 in school, because really their CSS family contribution may be higher than they think.</p>
<p>S is at a FAFSA school. COA is about $40K, and he has $20K merit scholarships. D will be entering in 2013, most likely at another FAFSA-only school. No idea about whether it will be a meets-need school or not. </p>
<p>Our FAFSA EFC is about $50K now. I was assuming it would be more with 2 because they might expect parents to pay more with 2? Or maybe that’s just for CSS schools? Anyway, if it were to then be $25K each, the question is how would the second school look at the fact that we were not paying $25K for S, but only $20K? Would they then be likely to say “well you still have $30K left in your EFC, not just $25K”?</p>
<p>^^only if they know what you are paying for S1. I remember this question in Profile (What are you paying yada yada) but I don’t remember this question in FAFSA. Maybe someone else who went through this cycle will know.</p>
<p>*S is at a FAFSA school. COA is about $40K, and he has $20K merit scholarships. D will be entering in 2013, most likely at another FAFSA-only school. No idea about whether it will be a meets-need school or not. </p>
<p>Our FAFSA EFC is about $50K now. I was assuming it would be more with 2 because they might expect parents to pay more with 2? Or maybe that’s just for CSS schools? Anyway, if it were to then be $25K each, the question is how would the second school look at the fact that we were not paying $25K for S, but only $20K? Would they then be likely to say “well you still have $30K left in your EFC, not just $25K”?*</p>
<p>Since there are very, very few FAFSA-only schools that meet need (I think only a couple), so very likely your D’s school will not meet need. </p>
<p>Very likely her school will just take her EFC (which it sounds like will be about $25k) and give her nothing but loans…unless she qualifies for merit. FAFSA only schools don’t seem to give much/any need based grants to those whose EFCs are that high. I doubt they’ll care or know what your son is getting. </p>
<p>Hopefully your D will get merit along the same amounts as your son, otherwise you may find yourself paying his $20k and whatever the other school costs. :(</p>
<p>Sylvan I believe most schools won’t ask what you are paying for son (when your D applies). They do ask this on the CSS so they will have that info BTW. One idea is to google for “sibling enrollment” and the schools name for the colleges D is applying to and see what info is requested. I have D1 at a meets need and D2 entering 2012 in a not need met. D1’s school asks for a “sibling enrollment form” and only requests total costs of D2’s school. D2’s school does not request any information regarding D1 - probably because they don’t meet need anyway. </p>
<p>I just looked quickly - Yale does not request COA and FA for sibling just confirmation of attendance, Harvard does request COA and FA. So it is very school specific. Good to know now though.</p>
<p>It does vary so individually among schools that you actually have to find a FA director who knows his/her stuff at the given school and directly ask. </p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that if a school does not guarantee to meet need, it can mean nothing that you have two in college except on some federal funds, such as subsidized Staffords. Or it can mean a nice windfall. Back some years ago, a family friend was doing very well with 2 in college. One was at Duke, the other at a local school. At that time, DUke did not do actual cost numbers, so the one going to school there got a substantial bump in aid. It was a shock when she was the lone one in college that she was eligible for nothing. At a different school, a student might just get the numbers reworked with actual costs, and if the school is a local state school fo the second sibling, the aid would reflect that and not be such an increase in aid.</p>
<p>^^Yes, I just planned for two in school and figured any windfall that potential colleges would give S2 because there were two in school would disappear in his year 2 and 3. I’m big on worse case scenario financial planning :-)</p>
I’ve read differently. What I read is the reason with two kids it comes out something like 60/60 is … 1) the parents portion of the EFC is getting split 50/50 with two kids … but that each student has their own portion of a EFC.</p>
<p>So you might get something like this …
1 student … 30k EFC (20k from parents and 10k from the student)
2 students … school 1 - 20k EFC (10k from the parents and 10k from the student) … school 2 - 20k EFC (10k from the parents and 10k from the student)</p>
<p>With 1 student the EFC was 30k while with two it is 40K … but the difference is now two kids are putting in their part.</p>