Do schools typically recalculate financial aid each year after the initial freshman year offer? I know some schools my son has visited mentioned that your financial aid would not decrease after your freshman year, even if things changed. However, is that common? (I know I’ll have to ask each school directly to get a definitive answer. I’m just wondering if that policy is common or unusual.)
And do schools automatically increase financial aid if there are significant changes that are reported on the FAFSA/CSS?
In particular, I am wondering about having 2 kids in college. My oldest will start fall 2023, and my second son is only one year behind. (I know the FAFSA is scheduled to not take into account multiple kids beginning in fall 2024, but I think I heard that the CSS will continue to take it into account.) Using the current EFC calculators, our (FM/IM) EFC is 60/40 with one in school and 35/30 with 2. Should we assume my older son will have the Fin Aid package that goes with the 60/40 EFC all 4 years? Or might we reasonably expect it to improve when his brother is also in college?
You are right all of this is school specific.
For schools that require a FAFSA each year, aid can change every year. Just remember that using prior prior year income means there is a delay in what college year an income change impacts aid.
With that said, if there is a significant downward change in income, or a parent loses their job, or something else like that at any point in time, you can ask the FA staff for ‘professional judgment’. There is usually a change in circumstances form on FA websites to start the process.
We don’t know that CSS schools will continue to take into account number of kids in college at the same time after FAFSA eliminates that consideration, it’s up to each CSS school…that’s something you also have to ask the FA staff at a given school (and they may not know yet whether they will change their formula or not).
1 Like
Okay, thank you. I was afraid that was the case. The one school (WPI) where I have spoken with a Financial Aid representative gave me no information. He said, “We’ll just have to see how things play out (wrt multiple kids in college and the IM). We can’t really say anything about what the policies will be like a year from now.” It is just making it challenging to pin down a number on what we can afford for my older son for this year.
2 Likes
IIRC, WPI does not guarantee to meet full need for all. If that is the case, your need based financial aid might change and it might not. Regardless, you will need to complete the financial aid forms for subsequent years.
No one really knows what Profile,schools will do regarding more than one student in college at the same time. At this point, that’s a wait and see.
Are you concerned about affordability for your oldest who presumably is already in college…or the youngest who isn’t there yet?
If possible, look for merit award schools where your merit aid is based on stats and not on income or number of kids in college at the same time.
1 Like
One is a high school senior this year, the other is a high school junior. We’re trying to figure out what we can afford, but (in addition to the amount we can contribute from savings) our cash flow has some impact. So we could afford a higher tuition bill with one in school than with two.
We have some for each from savings. We can probably afford about 20K/year extra. So we could afford X+20K for oldest son first year, but then only X+10K each for the next 3 years, and then X+20K for younger son for his 4th year.
I guess one answer would be to plan take out 30K of (Parent Plus?) loans if financial aid doesn’t adjust, which we could pay back over the next 2 years after everyone was out of school.
$30k total including all the kids? Some might disagree, but I think that is a manageable amount of loans for four years of college for two kids.
If it’s $30,000 a year, I would need to rethink.
As a reference. We asked our kids to take at least some of the Direct Loans for undergrad school. For both, our graduation gift to them was paying off their loans in full. Let’s just say…the monthly loan pay,ends we’re far far less than the monthly college payments we were making. In both kids cases, we paid these off pretty quickly. Total for us was about $40,000.
1 Like
Well, 30K total for us, and the max student loan (~30K total, I think) for each of them. I have a strong aversion to loans at all, but my husband isn’t so opposed.
Both of my kids’ colleges required new financial information each year and the awards were based on that information. My D (older sibling) received significantly more aid once my S started college. However, both kids went to schools that were generous with FA and met need.
2 Likes
WPI guaranteed the merit awarded in D21’s offer for 4 years, so we looked at that number knowing the need based aid in her package would change with a sibling graduating.
1 Like
Yes…they guarantee merit.
They don’t guarantee need based aid.
1 Like