Hi- I’m totally thinking ahead here. Our boys are current Juniors. 1 should be a NMSF (225 SI in CT) while the other should squeak by as commended.
If the one ends up at a school using a NM scholarship, will that factor into our EFC for the other? Ex: if our EFC comes out to $20,000 per kid, but the one has a full ride, will our EFC for the other jump to $40,000?
Most FAFSA only schools do not meet 100% demonstrated need, What you would have to pay would probably be more than the 20k. Schools that give their own institutional need based aid will look at your whole financial picture including the fact that you have a child attending college for free.
So does that mean that having one utilize a scholarship wouldn’t really help us at all?
I would not say that. There are approximately 60 schools in the country that meet 100% demonstrated need. Even then the schools with the most generous need based aid plans have less than a 10% admit rate.
If your twins attend schools using the Profile, please just forget about that FAFSA EFC. The financial info onnthe Profile is what will be used to determine your family contribution and need based aid eligibility.
Having two in college at Profile schools…that family contribution is not 50/50. Each student will be paying 60% of the single EFC…at least. So using your $40,000 example…each kid would be $24,000 not $20,000. As noted above…most colleges don’t meet full financial need.
When you complete the FAFSA and Profile, you will indicate you have two in college. The financial aid formulas at the colleges will consider that in their equations. A very few colleges WILL ask what the other kid is paying. But most don’t. It’s just the number of kids in college.
Do build your twins college lists from the bottom up. Make sure they have an affordable sure thing for admission college…that they are willing to attend. Find that FIRST…for both of them.
If finances are a concern, your NMF kid has some doors open for very good merit aid. Look for schools that have that. And your commended kiddo also could be eligible for merit aid. Merit aid is NOT income or EFC dependent…and sometimes doesn’t even require the financial aid forms be completed.
Thank you for these explanations. This is so helpful. The NMF kid is already researching the NMF Merit schools. Our hope is that he does fall in love with at least one in case other schools don’t pan out with merit and financial aide packages.
Your FAFSA EFC will NOT increase just because Twin1 accepts a big NMF scholarship.
I believe that the only time FAFSA EFC is affected like that is if the student will be attending a military academy (full ride on the gov’ts dime).
However, most FAFSA only schools do NOT meet need. So even if Twin2 has an EFC of $20k, you may still find that you are gapped and have to pay more for him.
That said, if Twin2 is going to be commended in your state, then like he can score high enough on the ACT/SAT to get good merit at some schools. Have him practice both tests.
Of course Twin1 also has to take the ACT/SAT as well to have a confirming score.
Alabama has a huge NMF award, nearly a full ride.
Alabama also has large merit scholarships for students with high stats, so if Twin2 can get a high ACT/SAT score, they both could go there and your remaining costs could be quite low. My two boys went to Alabama…one on NMF, and the other on Presidential. Remaining costs were quite low.
What are their majors and career goals?
If I were you, I’d be telling Twin2 that his options will greatly expand if he practices/studies for the ACT/SAT and gets a score high enough for big merit as well. He certainly has what it takes to get at least an ACT 32 or SAT equivalent…or higher.
I just wanted to add…my boys are 2 years apart. Knew Son1 would be NMF, but at the time Son2 was a very good but not top standardized test taker. We assumed that S2 would not get great merit, so we really wanted S1 to accept a great deal…because we assumed we would be near-full-pay or full pay for S2). In the end, S2 ended up with a top SAT score and was awarded a very large award. So lots of hope for your Twin2!!!
How much are you prepared to spend IN TOTAL for both twins per year?
In the spring, all you’ll find out is if they’ve at least made it to Commended status. In Sept, when the NMSFs are announced, we figure out what each state’s cutoff is. I believe CT has the highest cutoff, so if your Twin1 already exceeds that, he’ll make it.
Wow. Thank you so much for this information.
They both already took the Nov SAT twin1 1480 (780 ebrw/700 Math)
twin 2 1470 (730 ebrw/740 Math)
So I believe twin1 already has the NM Qualifying Score he will need. He’s also at the top (or close) of his class with twin 2 not far behind. They both will take again in late spring or summer.
twin1 has no idea what he wants to major in. Twin2 wants Business (probably Econ) and then law school.
We went on a Midwest tour this summer and they both loved Univ of ND. Twin1 also loved Wisc- Madison.
We could swing $25k each per year. So far the NPC that I ran for some
Schools came out to just around that. Some were even less ($18k) so I’m hoping I’m in the ballpark.
Unless you are instate for Madison, I would eliminate it. It is $52k/year for OOS.
If you live anywhere around the ND-Wisc area, you likely have good instate flagship options.
Getting total cost down to $25k/year isn’t easy via merit. The bigger NMF schools are the easiest and most reliable method. Chasing non guaranteed merit with twins is likely to be stressful.
If you think you can cover your demonstrated need for both, I would move schools like CWRU to the top of the list for consideration. The are a meets need school that both have a chance to get accepted into.
@Eeyore123 the OP is in CT.
Good to be looking now. I do think you need to figure out if you can afford the net costs the schools are estimating. Some schools like ND give only highly competitive merit awards.
Unless your $25k/year/student already includes the student contribution (work & federal loans), it looks like they both have a really good safety in UConn. From there, I would tell them both that they can look at other schools, but the net price has to get down to $25k/year parent contribution. It sounds like all of the meets full need schools would still be in play. Also, they can try to go merit hunting but it is going to be more difficult to reach that price point. What I wouldn’t do is say if one twin can get their price below $25k, the other can spend it.
CT students can also attend University of Maine for the same cost as instate for UConn.
Again, that EFC doesn’t mean anything at schools that don’t meet full need, especially at public schools. The schools have a COA, and some offer merit aid or other scholarships, and a few will give need based aid but it often has little to do with the amount you really need to pay the bill. Your EFC could be $0k or $40k, and you’d still pay the same amount OOP. The EFC of $0 would of course get a Pell grant, and probably an SEOG, but the rest depends on the school.
My daughter’s OOS public school didn’t really give need based aid following a formula. She sometimes got an ‘alum’ award, and those were awarded by the FA office, but the student would get the $1000 or $2000 award, and it didn’t matter if your EFC was $15k or $0 - the award was set by the FA office. I think the awards were most often given to ‘needy’ students, but an EFC of $0 didn’t mean much; you weren’t getting 3 or 4 of the $2k awards, just one to a customer.
So for example I ran the Univ of ND EFC and it came out to just under $24K. (For one). Should I not trust that IF they both got in that we would not be paying approximately $24k each?
Should I be doing more to get more accurate estimates?
Can you copy paste results
Are the biological parents still married? Do you own a business or farm? If both are no and you have a normal salary income with normal types of assets (home, stocks, etc), it should be correct. Just be aware if one of the twins leaves school for any reason your net cost will increase for the one remaining.
Because ND is need based only, if both are going there and no other financial aid, I think you can expect to pay the $24k each if the ND calculator is usually correct (ask on that forum) and if your financial situation is straight forward (income is W2, no strange asset situation). If one goes to another school and gets merit aid, and ND cares about that, then that number might not hold.
I’d go with the 'sure, we’ll pay $24k each until you learn otherwise.
Thanks all. Yes we are still married and we have no unusual assets. For the NPC’s I ran I pulled out our 2017 tax return so I’m pretty confident I ran everything correctly.
I did run Yale’s (just to see one Ivy- I’m not sure either will apply, but they do want to tour a couple. We did tour U Chicago which had that Ivy feel, but they both could not see themselves there so they won’t apply). Yale’s came out to $18kish for one.
I didn’t save anything. I think today I will run some again and start printing things out to stay more organized and realistic.
Keep in mind that the Finanical aid given by HYP, is not the same level of financial aid that you will receive from the rest of the Ivies. The good thing is the NPC is giving you a net price of 18K. The bad thing is the 5% admit rate