Then maybe it’s about right.
???
Are you SURE that your FAFSA EFC was $35k last year? or is THAT what you had to pay because that was the school’s cost after merit or student loans?
I’ll bite. You said you worked through the FAFSA formula by hand and the EFC for each kiddo was in the $15,000 range. That would NOT NOT be the case with a $180,000 income.
And you said your income had not increased since last year by much. Was that an error too? Or did you have significant additional assets?
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I have a HS Senior, going into college in the Fall. I have twin HS Juniors who are following 1 year behind. I included this information in the FAFSA which gave me an ECF of about $30k.
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Does this $30k for this Fall take into account the other siblings? Is that my family ECF that NEXT year will be roughly divided among the 3, i.e. ~$10k each?
Thanks in advance!
Nick
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You wrote this a year ago. Did you make a big mistake on last years FAFSA ?
Or more income assets this time?
The FAFSA doesn’t ask who will be in college one year later. It asks ONLY who will be in college in the same academic year as the FAFSA that is being filed.
Right…but he may have accidentally excluded assets or something last year so the EFC was wrongly too low
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I have a HS Senior, going into college in the Fall.
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I have twin HS Juniors who are following 1 year behind. ** I included this information in the FAFSA which gave me an ECF of about $30k.**
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What?
LAST YEAR, when you were doing FAFSA for Fall 2014…Why would you “include this information in the FAFSA” that you have twins that will be going to college in Fall 2015?
If that’s not what you did, WHERE would you have “included” that info?
Are you saying that LAST YEAR when you filled out FAFSA you accidentally put “3 in college” because you were including the twins who’d be going to college in Fall 2015?
If you did do THAT error, then WHY would you think that the EFC would split in 3 for THIS YEAR when you had already (wrongly) counted the twins LAST year?
Something isn’t right about this story.
To the OP…what did you actually pay to the college for your son last year. Did he receive need based aid?
Even if you included the twins, the colleges require documentation that the twins are actually enrolled…and they were not. If the student aid package last year was based on three in college, this would have been adjusted way down when there was no ability to provide documentation that the twins were actually enrolled as matriculated college students.
OTOH…this poster says they had either close to $180,000 in income (income did not rise much in 2014) and/or significant assets. The son would likely not have received any need based aid anyway with those income/asset amounts.
But I am perplexed by the posters comment that they worked through the FAFSA by hand and got $15,000 each for EFC amounts.
To the OP…don’t need to know the details…but just a simple yes/no…did you find the mistake?
Somebody is pulling y’all legs.
@LanaHere
I don’t think anyone is pulling legs here. The OP has a long history of posting and isn’t playing games. I think he just either made a big mistake last year (maybe putting 3 in college last year or forgot to list something financial) and got a (wrong) low EFC last year. Or, maybe he forgot that 2014 financials (income or assets) were much higher than 2013, so that’s what triggered the increase. He may be reluctant to come back to this thread and admit a big mistake.
The OP now knows that the current calculation for 3 in college is correct ( a total of $60k). I’m sure this is shocking because if he thought his EFC was around $30k for one in college, then he thought this next Fall, EFC would be $10k each for three.
They’re probably scrambling now trying to figure out how to fund 3 kids in college at the same time.
okay lol
From another thread, it looks like the OP is also looking at some (pricey) prep schools for a younger sibling…unless I’m reading this incorrectly.
Hopefully the OP’s twins have some affordable options on their application lists.
If the son’s fafsa had 3 kids in college last year, I don’t think he would have gotten the error about a sharp increase of kids in college this year…
^^
True…
But, he now thinks the current EFC of $20k per kid is correct…so he’s uncovered some mistake. Either he wrongly put in financial info last year…or he had much better financial info this year.
And, for all we know, he may have gotten a $30kish EFC last year, but it may have gotten corrected to be much higher at some point and maybe he didn’t realize it because the original EFC already excluded that child from aid.
For all we know, the first kiddo didn’t get a penny of need based aid.
From all I’ve read, the EFC doesn’t just take the one child number ($35k) and divide in half for 2 or 3 kids. I’ve heard it takes your single EFC and makes it about 60% for each child when you have 2 kids.
IE, one kid EFC is $35,000.
2 kids in college - each one = $35,000 x .60 = $21,000 each.
3 kids in college is even worse.
And the private colleges may not care that much, and won’t increase funding for Child 1 even when he has siblings enter college.
@maggpie Yes, CSS schools do that 60% thing…that’s not what FAFSA does.
Looks like this thread lit up a bit. I know of no mistake on the FAFSA either this year or last year. I was just responding to your statement re estimated income based on the $60k total EFC. It is about $200k and was so last year too. No significant change in assets. Last year I did not say the twins were in college as was suggested – poor wording on my part I guess.
1 son is at a SUNY - no I did not receive aid for him as I did not demonstrate need.
For what it’s worth, I’m getting “aid” packages back now from the schools the girls applied to (based on the $20k EFC), and despite demonstrating need, I am getting NONE, beyond $5500 in Stafford loans.
I find it hard to believe that $35k is accurate for your FAFSA EFC last year for one student in college with a 2013 income of about $200k. That sure doesn’t sound right.
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I find it hard to believe that $35k is accurate for your FAFSA EFC last year for one student in college with a 2013 income of about $200k. That sure doesn’t sound right.
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exactly!
so that’s why I suggested that there was some kind of mistake somewhere.
You can’t have an EFC for ONE child last year for $35k with that income, and then the next year have 3 in college and then have $20k EFC for each…unless the kids have a lot of assets.
With ONE in college and that income, the EFC would be $60k
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For what it's worth, I'm getting "aid" packages back now from the schools the girls applied to (based on the $20k EFC), and despite demonstrating need, I am getting NONE, beyond $5500 in Stafford loans.
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That is common with schools that don’t meet need. Your twins could have $10k EFCs and be getting nothing but loans at MANY schools.
Efc is a fed number. The feds can’t order schools to only charge you that much. The schools don’t have the money.