<p>I have 1 student who will be in her 3rd year in the fall and another about to start.
The CSS Profile is for the student entering her third year.
It asks about the sibling's (1st year) expected total cost and parent's contribution.
We are not yet sure which school she will attend, so I am not really sure how to come up with numbers here. I think putting 0 or leaving it blank is a very bad idea, as I would imagine this number could have a significant impact on aid. I was thinking of plugging in the same numbers as what it cost this year for the 3rd year student (both will be attending 4 year private colleges...that much we do know), but I also presume this number will decline based on having 2 kids in college. I guess the question is how much should I expect it to decline. The FAFSA EFC will be cut in half right? But that doesn't mean the school will increase aid by that much, so I think cutting that number in half is probably not a good estimate. Maybe 1/3, 1/4, or even less? Anybody been through this who could advise?</p>
<p>Why not use the results that are showing on the NPC on your second child’s school’s website - putting in that there will be 2 in school??? That seems to make the most sense since that’s what the school is suggesting that you’d have to pay.</p>
<p>it’s not logical to use the amount that you’re paying for child 1 since that amount would likely go down.</p>
<p>This is an excellent question. Most of us have no clue where our class of 2014 child will be attending right now, so just using the results of the NPC is not necessarily possible. How have others handled that?</p>
<p>OP is not sure where 2nd child will attend.</p>
<p>I went through this a couple of years ago. My recollection is that I put “To Be Determined” in as the name of the school and used a number that was somewhere around the midpoint of the COAs for the schools the younger sibling was applying to.</p>
<p>The school my oldest goes to never asked for clarification of that information. In fact they have never asked for verification of attendance, while the younger sibling’s school did require verification their first year. </p>
<p>To be honest I am not sure what percent they cut our EFC by as they do not meet full need. They did offer more aid, which was more like 25% of our EFC with only one in school. If you search I think you will find threads with discussion about what percentage schools more commonly use.</p>
<p>OP may not know where child 2 will attend, but could…</p>
<p>Use Child 1’s NPC and put “2 in school”</p>
<p>or…</p>
<p>Look at the variety of NPC answers from Child 2’s likely schools and provide an avg.</p>
<p>The issue really is…
From what we’ve seen, the amount that parent puts really doesn’t make a difference for CSS schools. The split is 60/60. So the school that Child 1 is attending will like take the current amount being paid, and multiply it by .60. Child #1’s school isn’t going to give more money if Child #2 goes to a full freight school. Child #1’s school is still going to do a 60/60 split (if full need)</p>