<p>My son will be a senior in college when my daughter will be a fresh. I expect that the EFC will decrease for son. Will it split and basically seem like I give them the same?</p>
<p>What about if son goes to grad school, does that still effect EFC?</p>
<p>When both of your kids are in undergrad school, your TOTAL EFC will be split about in half. It’s not exactly half as each student may have different income and assets.</p>
<p>Re: grad school…some schools will allow your grad school student to be “counted” as a student in college when computing the EFC and others don’t. You have to ask the schools.</p>
<p>The part of the FAFSA EFC generated by the parent income/assets is divided equally between the number in college. Any part generated by the student’s own income/assets stays with that student.</p>
<p>
For financial aid purposes he will be considered independent so his EFC will be based on just his own income/assets - parent income/assets will not affect it. </p>
<p>I think in most cases your sons in grad school will not affect your daughter’s EFC. But I think there have been posts here saying that some schools will allow the Grad school to count. You would need to ask the school.</p>
<p>If they don’t both attend schools that meet 100% of need, all bets are off.</p>
<p>LOL swimcatsmom @ your edit.</p>
<p>For us, our FAFSA EFC was split in half, and both ended up with the same EFC number.</p>
<p>In practical reality, it doesn’t work like that because one is in a private that calculates need by their own formula (but meets 100% of need as they calculate it), and the other is in a public where our EFC is certainly not all that we are expected to pay (since they don’t meet 100% of need). </p>
<p>Also the private, after determining what they believe we can pay overall, doesn’t divide it exactly in half since by some reckoning the student in the public univ. has lower tuition… even though in fact (because of the differences in financial aid policies) we have to pay much more for the state school.</p>
<p>renof2, yes, it does get confusing and there isn’t a standard across the board. I suppose that is a good thing if they would all be bad, but it takes a little more investigating.
From what my son’s college told me, when he graduates next year and if my twins go there, they wouldn’t count him as part of the fafsa (although I can put him down as 3 in my family) but they would count him as a member of my household in calculating aid until he is 24. Others said they would count him if I was helping him or he was living home (which he might be) Some schools like Brown want proof (didn’t specify what) that you are helping the student, others didn’t say that.
The way I look at it, the finite parts are that he is independent for his fafsa, but can be counted on the siblings. This helps explain it but not all colleges do the same formula:
The FAFSA wants to know about the number of people who live in the same household as the student and receive at least half of their support from the student’s parents. Support includes shelter, food, and payment of transportation, medical, insurance, or educational costs. The student is always counted, as well as the biological parent(s) or resident stepparent (in the case of a remarriage — see above). Dependent siblings/step-siblings are also counted, even if they live away at college during the academic year. An older sibling who is in graduate school can be counted on the dependent student’s FAFSA, as both a member of the family and an additional college student, as long as the parents still provide at least half of his support. The graduate student, however, is eligible to file his or her own FAFSA as an independent student. Other family members such as grandparents, nieces, or nephews may also be counted if they live in the household and receive at least half of their support from the student’s parents.</p>
<p>FAFSA form - question about parents’ net worth of investment:
<ol>
<li> Is the outstanding mortgage loan for the home that we live in considered a Debt ? If so, will it be included as a reduction of the Parents’ net worth even though the fair value of the house that we live in is not required to be included in the Parents’ net worth?</li>
</ol>
<p>Filing FAFSA for Twins:
<ol>
<li> In the event that I would have to file separate FAFSA for each Twin, the information that I would use for FAFSA would be almost the same except for the twins’ names and colleges that each applies. To avoid any confusion by FAFSA, should I wait a day between each FAFSA filing or doesn’t it matter?</li>
</ol>
<p>
No. There is nowhere on FAFSA to report debt. Debt is not considered by FAFSA unless it is directly against a reportable asset. Then you can reduce the value of a reportable asset by the debt. So if you had a second home, which is a reportable asset, you would report the net value of the home - value less mortgage. If you have a margin account loan against a stock account you report the value of the stock account less the margin loan. Any other debt is not taken into account by FAFSA. This included credit card debt, student debt, mortgage on the primary home (because the home is not a reportable asset), a loan against a 401k (because the 401k is not a reportable asset).</p>
<p>I don’t know the answer to question 1. Off hand I would think the stocks would not be reportable until you exercise the options. But I am not sure of the rules surrounding vested stock options.</p>
<p>Yes you must file for each child, twin or not twin. There is no reason to wait between filing. The FAFSA requires their name and their SSN. There s/b no confusion. EVen if you file a day apart the schools do not get the info as it is filed . They upload the information periodically.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom - thank you so much for your quick replies!</p>