We just did the FAFSA and CSS Profile for D2’s sophomore year of college - school guarantees to meet 100% demonstrated need (no merit aid in package). D1 will be getting married next year so our household size will be going from it’s current size of 4 to 3. I’m trying not to panic because our EFC jumped from around $12k for 2015/2016 to around $29k for 2016/2017. Our income only increased by about $2k and D2’s actually went down. All other things remained fairly consistent. In 2015/2016, D1 was a college student, but she was a graduate student with no tuition or other fees. We expected to have to pay more next year, but not that much more. I’m hoping the school’s institutional methodology produces better results, but we won’t know until June.
Has anyone had any experience with this (changes in institutional aid fluctuating less than Federal Aid otherwise indicates)?
Some colleges count the grad school dependent sibling as a student in college. Is there any chance this school did this? Your EFC per FAFSA more than doubled…which could be partly because of that not being the case any longer…and partially because the sibling isn’t a houselhomd member anymore.
The net price calculators are really set up for incoming freshmen…but try running it with both scenerios…do it first with D1 in college and as a household member. Then do it again with D1 NOT as a household member or a college student. Curious what that will show!
@thumper1 I was thinking the same thing. Maybe the FAFSA counted her as a college student, but I would expect the Profile did not because it’s more clear about grad students not counting as students in college. Our aid package last year was a bit better than the NPC predicted.
The NPC does not count siblings in grad school as being college students. I tried the calculator, just changing family size and the difference is $2,400, which makes me feel a whole lot better.
That sort of aligns with my thinking. Your FAFSA EFC doubled…plus about $5,000. What was your net price for this D2 last year? Was it closer to the FAFSA amount with two in college…or not?
ETA…my daughters college was a Profile school…and they did count her grad school sibling brother as a student in college. He was also still our dependent, and a member of our household. This is NOt true for all colleges.
Surprising…for DD’s senior year, her brother was no longer in college. This school did not reduce her aid (which was actually a school merit based grant). But her school didn’t meet full need…at all!
If your income only changed by $2k but FAFSA EFC is a lot more this year that could be because of 2 students in college last year and one this year, lower parent asset allowance this year compared to last year (if you have assets other than retirement accts).