<p>If your need changes? We are considering accepting a no-merit-aid offer at a good school, and currently our EFC is nearly the entire cost of tuition and housing. If a parent loses her employment or stops working to start a business or something, obviously that information will appear on the next year's FAFSA. But will the college then say "Sorry, we accepted you when you had money, but we're not willing to pay when you have need?" Or once you're in and (presumably) succeeding, do they do what they reasonably can to keep you?</p>
<p>Ask the school. This is going to vary from school to school. But the first question you need to ask is whether this college meets full need; if yes, then ask what happens when a family’s need unexpectedly goes from zero to ??? after the student’s first year. If it’s actually a change in circumstances (as opposed to an initial failure to disclose need), then they will likely be willing to work with you. But if the school does not commit to meeting need, then it’s anybody’s guess what might happen in subsequent years. Start by speaking to the school’s financial aid office.</p>
<p>As Dodgersmom says, it depends upon the school. It also can depend upon the circumstances. Some schools guarantee to meet full need. But that guarantee most always depends upon their definition of need and on certain conditions. Something as simple as you or your student not meeting certain deadlines can mean you don’t get that need met that year; you lose grants and other components of your package. Something happens outside of their definition of meet that personally affects your personal ability to pay is not going to cut it even at some of the most generous schools. In your OP, you bunched some examples together that can have very different outcomes. Losing a job, illness, other such universally recognized catastrophes ARE NOT usually in the same category as starting a new business. </p>
<p>I have close friends who retired (forcibly) and with the payout decided to start a business. Their kids were at full need met schools, on not a large amount of aid, but with two at college and a third on the way, it added up to quite a nice piece of change especially given the new endeavor they were starting. None of the schools would budge in financial aid. They did not care that the payout was going into a whole new business and to spend it on college was a bad financial move and that it was a one year blip. Three schools, they all refused to recognize it as such which meant a more than a $30K differential, and that was back a few years ago. So the kids took time outs that year, worked, and then the following year the family made sure they were in position to get maximum aid, because by then, they understood exactly how each of the schools calculated aid and they maxed it out. It saved them six figures in costs for their kids at very good schools But none of them would take that one year payout into consideration as a one time thing to be mitigated, not one of three schools. </p>
<p>I know some very good schools that simply will not increase their need based awards by much even if a second or third child goes to college while that first kid is in there. It IS very much the fact at these schools which DO NOT guarantee to meet need, that the package you get from Year 1 is pretty much the most you are going to get for the next 3 years thereafter barring any heart wrenching catastrophe. Lose a job–wait a year or more before it gets taken into account. Another kid in college, no they do not adjust the award accordingly. Maybe you get more, maybe not. NO guarantee and they often do not. </p>
<p>So you need to talk to the financial aid officers at the school and find out what specifically they do and not do. If they tell you that the award your student got, which may or may not meet FAFSA EFC , but likely does not, is the most they were likely to confer on your child even if that EFC were more, if need were more, then, no, the likelihood of getting more, is not there. If it’s a school that guarantees to meet full need by its own defintions, you make sure that their definitions include needs that change over the years, and what is definitely included. Though getting anything specific other than loss of income on their PROFILE statement, another kid in college is about all you may get a commitment about. THings like loss of job or other disaster are often taken up as professional judgement, and what a methodology will yield as true loss of income and what such changes truly cost you are often whole other stories. </p>
<p>Thank you both so much, dodgersmom and cptofthehouse. This is just what I need to get moving and find out what needs to be found out! Really appreciate your thoughtful replies.</p>
<p>I’m on my third in college and had over a year of zero income in a year when I had two in college. Neither college changed anything. It’s was a rough, rough couple years, but we had assets to tap, and we weathered it.</p>
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<p>Remember colleges plan on you paying from current income, PAST savings and FUTURE earnings…so don’t send your kids off somewhere expensive if you don’t have the three legs of the chair - because if one leg breaks you could be in trouble. </p>
<p>Thanks. I have known some students over the years who’ve had to leave a school where they were thriving because of finances. It is heart-breaking. I do NOT want to do this to my kids!
“Current, past, future” is a good mantra; thank you, momofthreeboys. </p>
<p>“Need aware,” just like “need blind,” is an admissions term, not a financial aid term. Since you’re asking about possibilities after a student has been admitted and matriculated, I don’t think the term “need aware” fits the context. The easy answer to your question is, it depends on the policies of the particular school. You’ve already received the best advice, which is to ask the FA office at the school what they will do if financial need increases after the student has enrolled.</p>
<p>My daughter attended a need aware but meets 100% need school.
When circumstances changed, they reevaluated and adjusted aid.</p>