<p>i used a financial aid estimator and i got a certain number. however, i am a twin. is the efc the amount that my family needs to pay for each of us, or all together?</p>
<p>Assuming you put 2 in college, that is the number for YOU. Your twin may or may not have the same number (depending on individual student earnings). Basically, though, your family is expected to contribute that much for you … and approximately that much for your twin, as well.</p>
<p>Each. The EFC is your own EFC.</p>
<p>When you completed the estimator it should have asked you how many would be in college. If there will be your twin and yourself then you should have answered 2. The EFC would have taken the number in college into account and already divided the part of the EFC generated by parent income/assets by 2. Any part of the EFC generated by your own income/assets would not be changed.</p>
<p>S0 for instance EFC formula calculates 10,000 as the parent part of the EFC and 1,000 as the student part. When the formula gets to the # in college it will divide the parent part by 2 - 10,000/2 = 5,000, giving a final EFC of 6,000 (5,000+1,000). The EFC you see is the one after this calculation has been done so is your own personal EFC. Your twin will have his/her own which may be the same or slightly different if you have different student income/assets.</p>
<p>The above is for the FAFSA EFC. CSSprofile uses a different formula and, according to posts here on CC, does not reduce the EFC by 50% but by a lower %.</p>
<p>Yeah, in my experience the CSS Profile school will reduce the parent contribution piece relative to the costs of the siblings’ schools. For example if the sib is in a lower cost public u., the parent contribution piece set aside for that student will be less than 50% because the costs of the public u. is less that the CSS Profile private school.</p>
<p>The irony is, of course, that although the sticker price is lower at the public u, once financial aid (or lack of it) is factored in, sometimes the public u will cost the parents much more than a generous private!</p>
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<p>That is not our experience at all.</p>
<p>First…when you file your FAFSA or your PROFILE in Feb or so (as an incoming freshman)…you may not even KNOW which school the kiddo will be attending. The EFC is calculated then for the FAFSA…after submission…not after the college choice has been made.</p>
<p>On the sibling FAFSA and Profile, you do not indicate which college they are attending…you indicate only that there IS an additional student attending college (2 instead of 1).</p>
<p>Our kids’ EFCs per FAFSA were just about 1/2 of what they had been for one kid. </p>
<p>Rent…what evidence do you have that Profile schools reduce aid? Our DD and DS did have to give their schools the name of the school the other was attending…but that didn’t happen until WELL into the fall term…long after financial aid had been awarded. Both went to Profile schools.</p>
<p>The CSS Profile asks the sibling’s college on question #FM-145.</p>
<p>But I didn’t say Profile schools would reduce aid, I said they’d reduce the family contribution piece (in other words, essentially increase aid), but that they don’t necessarily reduce it by 50%. The percentage of the reduction is somehow related to the relative cost of the sibling’s college.</p>
<p>For example, you might get a 50% reduction in the family contribution if you have a second student in another private school, but somewhat less of a reduction if that second student is going to the community college.</p>
<p>This has only to do with the Profile, and nothing really to do with FAFSA. And this is our experience. Others’ will vary no doubt. In our case it still ended up more-or-less a 50% split, but it wouldn’t necessarily according the college website for my son’s school.</p>
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<p>Hmm…now how would one complete that field when the sib has not yet CHOSEN their college???</p>
<p>I just put the college to which my younger kid planned/hoped to be going. This fall when I got the “sibling enrollment verification” form from the older kid’s college, it did say that sometimes sibs will decide to attend a different college or to not attend college, so the verification form gives you opportunity to update any changes of plans if you have not already let them know.</p>
<p>If a sib has decided to not attend college at all, for example, your financial aid award will be adjusted.</p>
<p>ok, so after my brother and i decide what colleges we’re going to, we tell the colleges and they’ll update the financial aid?</p>
<p>If they’re Profile schools, yeah, that’s probably what will happen. Ask though, different schools do things differently. (Unless you or your sib have a very significant change of plans, it probably won’t actually affect your financial aid, though.)</p>