<p>There are a variety of questions on the CSS (I haven't seen them all) that ask in the future questions. How do you answer these? For example.. how much do you expect to receive in scholarships, grants, etc ? Does that mean... how much do you want/hope to get? The answer to this question varies significantly between schools. Roughly what number should you put down? I told S to just put 0, but that isn't realistic, but he has no idea what number is realistic. </p>
<p>I know a couple of other questions are something like how much do you expect to earn next summer, how much over the next school year. The answers to these questions are not reliable because we have no idea.</p>
<p>One problem too that I'm having is how much do we expect to pay in tuition (for S2 - attending HS), as I don't know if his tuition will double as DS1 will be gone, or if it will decrease based on our need or if it will stay the same.</p>
<p>Will our need be based somewhat in part on the answers to these questions?</p>
<p>I would say if you don’t have any scholarships in hand, put down 0. </p>
<p>As far as summer employment, I think any estimates should error on the low side. Each school will have its own idea of how much a student should contribute over the summer anyway.</p>
<p>I believe the first question will have a much greater impact on your FA package than the second.</p>
<p>You could try the net price calculators to get a better idea of what you might pay for each school, but my advice would be to take it with a grain of salt. Most of them seem to be accurate, but some not so much.</p>
<p>For the high school tuition - I would ask the high school how your S1 graduating (and attending college) will affect S2’s HS tuition/FA. Does the high school FA use the PFS through SSS to determine aid? If so those forms do ask about siblings tuition. My experience has been that the HS considers the college tuition but maybe not to reduce the younger siblings tuition. In my case when D1 went to college D2’s HS FA was about the same as when they were both in private HS. In fact I did call the HS when I was in your boat and they said to put in the same amount as the previous years tuition for D2 on the CSS for D1.</p>
<p>^ Thank you and yes, we use the PFS through SSS :-). The school did not meet our need this year though, nowhere close. </p>
<p>Last year, (made up numbers but valid example) we paid $200 for S1 (S2 was in public school). This year we pay $100 for S1 and $100 for S2 (so still a total of $200). When S1 goes to school (college) next year, I do not know if we will pay $100 (what his tuition is this year) or $200. I think we’ll pay $100. I don’t know if we should put $100 on the CSS or slightly more to allow for the possibility of paying $200. I truly hope we’ll pay less than the $100!</p>
<p>I think what you are saying though is to put $100 on the CSS for the expected tuition payment for S2 next year, right?</p>