<p>I have twins who are starting their senior year in high school. They are in that awkward zone where they will be competitive for acceptance at even the most selective schools and they will have tremendous scholarship offers at less selective schools. In fact, they have both already qualified for Full Tuition plus scholarships at our state flagship. We qualify for need-based aid based on multiple NPCs, with our EFC being somewhere north of $10k for each (assuming both students paying tuition).</p>
<p>My question is how schools will calculate our EFC if one twin selects a full ride while the other chooses Expensive University?</p>
<p>For their freshman years, I would assume that the initial FA offer would reflect two high-priced tuitions. However, in subsequent years, would our EFC double for Expensive U since we are only paying for one student? It would seem that this would completely negate the incentive of taking a full ride scholarship since our money would just get sucked up by the other school.</p>
<p>At FAFSA-only schools, it should have no effect since there are no questions on the FAFSA about how much you paid for a sibling’s education. However, on the CSS Profile, there are a number of questions about sibling educational costs and how much you paid, including:
-“How much did this person receive in scholarships, grants, or gift aid during the last year”
-“How much did your parents pay for this person’s education in the last year”
-“What will the total cost of attendance be for this person during the upcoming year”
-“How much will your parents pay for this person’s education for the upcoming year”</p>
<p>Each CSS School will/may use this information differently. You will need to ask each of the individual CSS schools what their policy is.</p>
<p>It comes down to the school, as always However, when you are talking about the schools that guarantee to meet 100% need, and also have the name recognition, my experience and take on it has been that those with two kids at college do well, and the aid stays at the standard level throughout the 4 year. </p>
<p>However, things have been changing so quickly with the economy, investments, colleges, and what anyone’s past experience has been means nothing when it is your situation at hand. You are fortunate in that you have a very good safety school, a primary school already in place. So you can go to town and have the kids apply where they please, and when it comes down to making this decision, you can then talk to the financial aid offices and find out what their policies are in this regard specific to the school. You can then ask them to reiterate it in an email so you have the policy in writing. This will be when YOU (meaning your family) has all of the decisions and aid and merit packages in hand and have to make that decision.</p>
<p>Thanks to you both for your input. I appreciate that you both agree that talking to each FA office about their individual policies is the only firm answer.</p>
<p>dukedad - those types of questions are what concern me. Also the statements about how FA will stay roughly the same from year to year, AS LONG AS the family’s financial situation stays the same.</p>
<p>cpt - yes we are fortunate to have a solid option, although we are not convinced that our state flagship offers the best programs for my kids. I will definitely follow your suggestion to use emails for a documentation trail.</p>
<p>Has anyone else ever been in this situation?</p>