<p>As I plan for D2, I realize that many of the schools on her list do not gaurantee to meet 100% of demonstrated need (as did the school's on D1's list). I suspect that the awards for D2's first year will be reasonable, since both she and D1 will be attending college. But for D2's soph though senior years, she will only one in college. </p>
<p>If all of D1's frosh year packages are similar in terms of grants and result in similar out of pocket expenses, is it safe to assume that will be the case for her remaining three years (ie: generally similar grant awards)? If not, are LACs/unis will to loosely project future awards? </p>
<p>And generally, what's the best way to figure out, assuming no significant change in circumstances, what we're likely to pay for D2's last three years? I've checked general info via "Student Aid on the Web;" are there other sources I should check? </p>
<p>I don't want to get suckered in with an attractive first-year award, only to be hit with so a steep an increase that, had we know what the 4 year cost was likey to be, we would never have let D2 enroll.</p>
<p>So…does D2 need to add some 100% need met schools to her list?</p>
<p>BTW…when D1 graduates, won’t your EFC change in regards to D2? What I mean is…even if D2 goes to a 100% need met school, won’t YOUR EFC rise in regards to what you’ll be expected to pay for her? Or, maybe you’ve anticipated that, which is fine. :)</p>
<p>Do you know what your EFC will be for D2 once D1 graduates? </p>
<p>Well, I guess, either way, you probably need to have D2 choose some 100% need met schools for her list that she would be happy to attend. :)</p>
<p>When both schools don’t meet 100% of need, you won’t know until you get the awards. The schools that don’t meet need often don’t care how many others you have in college. Their money often goes to the top students in their pool, regardless of need.</p>
<p>Those that do make an award that takes into account the second child in college will of course want more money the second year from DII.</p>
<p>Now if DII gets a merit award, she should be able to keep it if her GPA is at the necessary level.</p>
<p>I would focus on schools that meet 100% of need unless your DDII is in line for big merit aid.</p>
<p>best thing to do is to ask the Finaid office once they make D2 an offer. A simple request: "what did you calculate our EFC to be this year and what would it be next year if all of our economic terms remain the same but D1 will have graduated’? In most cases, they will provide you with a good approximation of what a package would look like.</p>
<p>btw: you can also ask D1’s college on how they calculate your EFC today…</p>
<p>I agree. Can you think of any schools that DD2 might like that are either 100% need met or might offer her a nice fat merit $$ package? </p>
<p>Maybe some here can help with some ideas…what kinds of schools does DD2 like? Big? med? small? City? Rural? LAC? public? private? rah-rah? Greeks? What will likely be her area of study?</p>
<p>Our daughter asked that question. Her brother was in college for three of the four years (her school counted him when he was a grad student…some don’t). This year, she is the only one in the family in college (thank goodness). The school actually increased her school grant to keep pace with the cost increase (they have done this every year). She asked them UP FRONT what would happen to her aid. It turns out that her particular aid is need based AND merit…she had to maintain a 3.0 GPA to keep her aid.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I understand entirely that our EFC will be higher for years when only one D is in school (just as I expect next year’s EFC w/ two in college to be lower than previous years when only D1 was in college).</p></li>
<li><p>Most schools “gap” – only about 50 of the top LACs/unis promise to meet 100% of demonstrated need. D2 has one such schools on her list but it is a reach school; all of her match schools “gap.” And because D2 is a B student (no APs) with average SATs (1500/2400), merit money is unlikely.</p></li>
<li><p>I plan to ask bluebayou’s questions, but I wondering whether ther is anything else I can or should do.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>(I hadn’t planned on asking D1’s shool how it calculates EFC since it meets 100% of need (and have been VERY generous) and would not be instructive re: schools that gap.)</p>
<p>I always get a little confused when people talk about their EFC going up or down depending on how many kids are in college. I’ve had a year with one in, and years with two in. The thing is that our EFC is more or less the same regardless, it’s just a matter of whether that EC is split between two kids or not. Just the same, basically the same amount is expected from us in a given year. Where the savings comes in is that the number of years you’re paying out that EFC is reduced by years the kids overlap.</p>
<p>the reason for asking D1’s school is another data point for discussions/thinking about whether to accept D2’s offer. Regardless of how generous they’ve been, D1’s school still calculate an EFC. Thus, assume they calculate it at $30k. If D2’s college calculates it at $25k and even if they don’t gap, you can then make a decision knowing that other colleges come up with a significantly different number.</p>
<p>'rentof2, I don’t think you’re missing anything - -I probably shouldn’t have used the term EFC. What you report has been the case for friends w/ children at schools that don’t gap. But schools that gap will meet 100% of need for some students and a lesser % for others, so EFC is a factor, but not dispositive.</p>
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