So my FAFSA EFC last yr was more than cost of attendance (say 80k). S attends a CSS school that meets 100% of need. Of course nothing for last yr. But when I use the same inputs and add a kid on the schools NPC, it reduces the EFC by what would amount to a 20k grant. (with one kid it says I can pay 70, with 2 it says 50) . I assume it would do that for both kids if they attended the same school.
My question is, is the school’s NPC generally accurate (within 5% - 10% of aid suggested)?
Last school year I had two kids both in private colleges that promise to meet 100% need. Both colleges required us to submit verification of enrollment papers for the other college. We also had to submit a form from the financial aid office that said how much aid we were getting from the sibling’s college. My daughter’s extremely generous college cut our costs by a fair amount from the previous year (from 1 in school to 2). My son’s college cost more. When we ran aid for this year with only one in college again, my son’s EFC is very close to what it was last year with 2 in school.
So for OP- depending on the private school you may not get more aid for kid #2 if the school sees how little you are paying for kid #1.
got it. thx
I’m following this thread because our EFC is about the same as the OP’s. We will send our first son to college in 2019. I would love to know ahead of time what will happen with the cost of his college when we send our D21 to school. In the end, it might be a consideration when choosing a school for S19.
I’m assuming we will pay around $65,000 for years one and two. Then, in 2021, the school would assume we can pay 60% (per a post above) of our $80K EFC which is $48,000. That’s a big difference. Almost $20,000 less for his last two years of school. I don’t even know if every school would see it that way, though, or how they would handle it. I’m assuming some would be work study but not all. Is that what we are getting at here? That there’s really no way to know? I wonder if you can call the financial aid offices of each school and just ask.
Work study is fine with me as we’ve had that conversation. (I consider that free money - no loan - as I’m not the one doing the work. Part of their equation in deciding how important it is to attend school X over school Y). Frankly, we can afford the whole thing but I want my kids to have skin in the game to understand the value of going to their school. Pretty important for them to learn about financial decision making.
Of course it would be great to save 20k per kid per yr. We’ll see what happens. Thanks for all the logistics clarification.
@rickle1 Just for example, I just did the Carleton NPC and pretended we had two kids in college. S19 was given a $17000 grant and work study. I’m guessing Carleton is generous when it comes to this kind of stuff. Not convinced every school would do this.
My D attends a school that meets full need. In our case the NPC was accurate.
Did the calc and Wake Forest NPC gave me 19k “grant and scholarship”, so we’ll see.
Some schools will do a financial aid “pre-read” and others will not. If you can’t find a pre-read policy on the school’s website, you can always contact the financial aid office and ask. The worst that can happen is they say no.
Even if work study isn’t awarded, the student can get a regular job, on campus or not. There is a slight difference in taxes, but not enough to worry about.
@twoinanddone why would there be a difference in taxes between the earnings from a work study job, and the earnings from a regular job? Both are considered earned income for tax purposes.
The difference is…income from a work study job is NOT counted in the formula in subsequent years for financial aid purposes.
If there is an income tax difference…please explain.
I believe they do not take FICA from work study wages.
This is true. Actually, FICA will probably not be taken from any student earnings when the employer is the school, regardless of whether or not federal work study money is involved.
What does FICA have to do with taxes?
^^^
A lot. FICA is a tax. No FICA taken out of student earnings means more money in the student’s pocket.
FICA deductions are taxes. If they aren’t taken out of your check, you are paying less in taxes. I said it was a small difference, but if you are working at the college at $10/hr and not paying FICA, you are bringing home slightly more than if you are working at Starbucks for $10/hr.
Got it!
Work study pay scale and availabity of work can vary considerably from one campus to another. Just because a student is awarded $2000 in work-study doesn’t mean they will be able to find a campus job that fits around their schedule and enables them to earn their full allotment. Same deal with a non-work study or off-campus job - the ability to work is going to depend on the college and its location. It is good to have in the package but not nearly as dependable as a grant or loan. (Loans are definitely NOT free money, but at least they are disbursed early on in the semester --work of any kind puts the burden on the student to find and schedule the job, and typically the first pay check won’t issue until they’ve worked a couple of weeks).
Keep in mind also that work study can be very overwhelming to a freshman, who may still be adjusting to college. Many jobs want students at least 10 hours a week… and that’s not always easy to do right away.