Financial Aid Change With Sibling Entering College

<p>Hi, I’m not sure if this is exactly the right place for this thread, but… I have a sibling who will be entering college. I know this will change my parents’ EFC, but will that difference be made up in by an increase in grants, in loans, or a combination of both? My financial aid is in the form of ONLY loans right now. I’m not too keen on taking on even more student loans :(…
If anyone has been in a similar situation here, I’d be interested in knowing how it worked out! Thanks!</p>

<p>I checked the site, and it sounds like the amount of loans they expect you to take out should remain pretty constant (i.e. if you’re in the 7.5k/year category, they’ll keep you there). I know last year I gave only the tuition costs for my sister’s college, and so only got loans, but once living costs were included, I got school grants to cover the rest.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, we don’t learn about our package until mid-June. So a bit mroe waiting will be necessary.</p>

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<p>I’m in the same situation as the OP. My sister is starting at Brown this fall. Do you mean the loans that I would have to take would stay at 7.5k / year or that the sum of the loans for my sister and myself would be 7.5k?</p>

<p>I think it is unlikely that the loan portion of the financial aid will go up-- that is not unless you end up having to borrow more of what Brown expects you and your parents to come up with.</p>

<p>$54,000 - $2850 student contribution - EFC = Financial need</p>

<p>According to the overview on the finaid web site:
Finaid meets calculated need, first with federal and state grants, then work study and loans. Works study is $2550. The maximum loan-level in a package is $5000. (But a student might borrow more if, for example, the student doesn’t earn the expected amount during the summer or parents don’t contribute EFC.) The overview at the web site says the loan level does not change from year to year.
After all that comes $ from Brown.</p>

<p>EFC gets split if two or more children are in college, but necessarily equally.</p>

<p>^wewet: your school’s financial aid policy will decide how much you have to pay (unless you are also a Brunonian… then I’d imagine you’d both end up with nearly the same aid… but no guaruntees). The amount your sister is expected to take in loans, it sounds like, would stay at 5k (or whatever amount she has now), regardless of whether her total aid award is doubled or not. I think Brown treats loans as something individual, for the student, so both siblings would have similar loan expectations.</p>