Financial aid when number of kids in college change

Paying for College
21

As long as the student isn’t taking college classes, then he’s fine. The way you wrote this suggested that he would be taking college classes during the gap year. If so, the deferment is cancelled and the student is now a transfer student.

if he’s just taking some non-college leadership classes, those likely dont count.


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That brings the average cost to $52.5K for UMich <<<

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Are you looking just at tuition or full COA? would your son be in eng’g or LSA?

Are you wanting UMich to match merit offers elsewhere? or do you have a special circumstance for deserving more need based aid?

Depending on his major, graduating within 3 years may not work out. What is his major?/


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1) UMich - Average cost will be about $51K (taken into consideration getting less need based aid when 1 in college) 2) Case Western - Cost will be about $31K

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There are some other options:
3) University of Virginia - similar cost to Michigan and he like Michigan better.
4) University of Miami - $28K


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From this, it appears that you’d like UMich to come closer to the merit results of others.

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  1. It’s not just leadership classes. He earns college credit (at the school’s discretion) and the deferral still holds. Many kids on the program do this from many colleges.

  2. The full COA would be $52.5K (plus tuition increases over the years).

  3. LSA. Minor in Music (he plays cello) and maybe business.

  4. If they matched Case, he would sign up that day. If they split the difference, we would highly consider it. If they don’t budge, I may pass.

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No special circumstance. MY EFC is around $25K with 2 kids in college. They are not close to that.

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For us: Running the NPC on a meets full need school had it looking good for the first year, with two in college. Running the NPC with only one in college, for sophmore thru senior years, + potential increases in income, took it off the table.

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MY EFC is around $25K with 2 kids in college. They are not close to that.


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Well, it’s a CSS school. They don’t care what FAFSA EFC is.

PLUS…CSS schools use a 60/60 split based on their numbers.

I’m surprised that with an income of over $150k AND $330k in 529 that your FAFSA EFC for EACH child is only $25k.

Do you own a business or take business deductions? there seems to be something that FAFSA isn’t considering, but CSS does? Or do you have a lot of equity in your home?


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full COA $52.5k

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Is that right? isn’t it more like $58k-60k?

tuition alone for lower division LSA is $45k per year. Upper is $46k

Adding room, board and books is an add’l $12k

The full COA should be higher than that once you add…room, board, books, course fees, personal expenses and travel…about $16k to tuition.

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I’m surprised that with an income of over $150k AND $330k in 529 that your FAFSA EFC for EACH child is only $25k.


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Some of the $330K has already been spent on the older sibling. Other than that, I just don’t have alot of taxable accounts. I may have over-funded retirement accounts to put myself in this situation. I do not own a business.

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Is that right? isn’t it more like $58k-60k?


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They have already offered me $11,874. But that’s for when I have 2 kids in college. Current COA is $57,432. So, if I assume for 2 years I’ll get nothing, on average I’ll get half the offered amount, or $5,937. Subtract that amount from the COA and you get my average. I then need to add a bit more because of the extra charge for junior/senior years.

I’m probably going to call UMich on Monday to see what, if anything, they can do. Between now and then I’m doing research as to the best way to approach the call. Although my kid loves UMich, I personally think he will be fine at any of the schools mentioned.

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Interesting thread. I have told my K2 that UMichigan is not an option because of our potential EFC. For meets full needs schools the NPC is coming out between 20-25 per kid each for two. When I ran UM we were looking at a much higher net cost. Some money but not a lot. I do not remember the numbers but it was impossible for us.

OP, did your son look at schools that were similar targets to UM LAS but were meets full needs for him? That is what we are targeting. Have not made a full list but I run the NPC before suggesting the school to K2.

Case may give K2 merit when K2 applies but it is a little too far for us. I think K2’s stats are not going to be high enough to get merit at schools that are geographically desireable for K2 and are better or equivalent to our state flagship where most of K2’s friends will go. Also since most merit is not that great (20k off of a 65k COA), it is not something we are focusing on.

When I ran the NPC I think UVA was better than UM but not as good as UNC Chapel Hill which came up similar to a private full needs even though we are OOS. Most other OOS do not make sense for K2.

No advice on how to ask, just ask and say for the right price he is coming. Have a number in mind. Worst they will say no, take it or leave it. Also ask them how the numbers will change when K1 graduates. Since they do offer some merit, who knows.

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@privateID

LSA.
Minor in Music (he plays cello) and maybe business.

Although my kid loves UMich, I personally think he will be fine at any of the schools mentioned.
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That is smart thinking. UMich is an excellent school, but his other more affordable options can still get him where he needs to go in life…it really is up to his efforts.

What are his plans for LSA?

Is he premed? From his list of schools: Cornell, WashU, Johns Hopkins, Case, Vandy, Miami, and others, it sounds like he has a premed list. If he is premed, I’m not sure why he wants to go to an expensive undergrad, when med school is so expensive. And, I’m not sure why he wants to go where premed competition is so tough that he stands a good chance of being weeded out.

Another reason I ask about being premed is this…Graduating in 3 years is NOT a good idea for a premed. Not only would that mean applying to med schools right after his 2nd year of college (if the goal is to go right from undergrad), but it’s unlikely that he will have the medically-related ECs, research, and be able to get the best LORs at that point.

Be careful when you’re using the term COA. COA is the school’s cost of attendance, not your net cost. If you’re going to be talking about net cost after aid, then use that term.


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For every school I mentioned as potentially receiving need-based aid above, everyone shows us receiving over $30K when I have 2 kids in college. I was pretty surprised when I saw those numbers.

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Did the UMich calculator indicate $30k in aid with two in school? If so, I would print that out, and use that as one point in the discussion.

Good luck with negotiations. If they suggest that aid won’t go down when DD graduates, get that in writing.

BTW…is your DD’s school going to give more aid with 2 in college?

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My D is at UMich. We are in-state. She has never received a need-based grant until this upcoming year, when we will have two children in college. My 2nd D has been accepted to UMich and received $8500 in need-based grants…but I know she will lose all of this once my oldest D graduates. My 2nd D also has a very nice scholarship to Florida State, and we’re very tempted for her to go there, as I know the scholarship won’t go away, unlike the need-based grant at UMich. It’s a tough decision.

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@mom2collegekids My son is not pre-med. I’ve basically encouraged him just to get a strong liberal arts education while keeping his music a big part of the mix.

The COA for UMich, $57,432, I mentioned was what was in the stuff UMich sent to me. It wasn’t my net.

The NPC for UMich did not indicate $30K. In fact, the NPC was very accurate to what they offered.

I haven’t heard from from D1’s school yet. My guess is I will just get some loans from them. It’s another OOS state school.

Thanks for all the input.

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Thanks for the update. The mix of schools was one that we often see with premeds.

Good luck with UMich…hopefully they will give you what you need. If not, you’re right that your son will thrive wherever he lands. It’s mostly up to him anyway.

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Not surprisingly, UMich had no more money for us. They give out a total of 20 merit scholarships per year (that number may be for OOS only). That number was surprising but, regardless, whatever they awarded us is the final number. They did say that after freshman year they do have some more leeway, and that’s it’s not uncommon for them to award enough merit aid to wipe out any debt from Stafford loans. If I could bank on that, it would have some value at this time.

At this point, I believe my son is deciding between University of Miami and University of Michigan. I consider the academics to be a bit stronger at Michigan. Now is that worth approximately $80K more over the 4 years (that’s what I figured given our current awards), not really sure.

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I thought Case Western was great for music too.

If you have set aside $30k a year for all the kids, did you tell them that this is their budget?

UMich sounds like they might only give you a bit more first year, he will have higher tuition after 55 credits and then when older sibling graduates. He can’t count on graduating early.

Why not one of the schools that costs around $30 k with merit? He could freely explore all his opportunities, study abroad which might be good for business major, take internships that might not pay well, not have to worry about graduating early and no debt.

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We visited Case. He loved the music there (mostly because it’s next door to the Cleveland Institute of Music and there do share classes) . I think it’s his best option for music. He thought case was too much of an engineering school. It’s still an option. It’s a tough choice. I think he really wants a somewhat big fun school. Not sure if Case fits that bill.