Well…there you go. You have TWO kids in college…so your FAFSA EFC was $35,000…and so was your sibling’s…or close to it.
If only YOU had been in college…your EFC for just one of you would have been $70,000 and you would not have gotten a nickel of need based aid from these two colleges.
That other sibling in college at the same time is a VERY important detail when it comes to the family contribution at schools that meet full need for all.
I have to say…your OP in this thread mentioned nothing about additional siblings in college…and really was a bit misleading because of that large omission.
So they give you 35 k for a COA (as per their site) of 72K.
$37000 per as the balance you parents have to pay. $148 000 over 4 years. The reality is that the definition of met need is nuanced. As is the idea of need, but that is a whole other dog and pony show.
The MAIN reason the OP got need based aid at Colgate and Union is because the OP has a sibling also in college. Otherwise…the OP would not have gotten need based aid at these schools…at all.
Thank you though, OP, for playing along and divulging your details. Gross income (with no assets including college savings)of 200K -COA of you both at 65K is quite a chunk and many families couldn’t do that without taking loans themselves. Your instate tuition to a is quite high so that helps the math.
Perhaps unintentional, it is misleading in the title and it was misleading until his sibbling in college was disclosed. There is nothing new if it was said upfront a family with $200k income and 2 kids in college still get need based aid from need met school. I would even skip reading this thread if this is mentioned in the title. In any case, one should check the NPCs of schools with their own data before applying.
@zbthsjunior “Many people often assume that a high income correlates with no need based financial aid given. That’s just not the case.”
Thanks for your post. I’ve tried many times to let people know that they should at least run the NPC rather than assuming they can’t get aid. That goes both for people with lower income and higher income. People look at the sticker price only and don’t consider need and merit based aid, the university’s endowment, savings, other family circumstances, etc. Depending on those circumstances, some higher income families will get aid.
D was accepted to Northeastern and Cornell, both full need schools but with very different endowments obviously. They are about the same total cost. Northeastern determined we have $0 need and D just got the $5.5K loan. Cornell decided we had $45K need which they met with $35K grant, $7.5K loan, and the rest work study. Also, the NPC for Cornell estimated our need at $40k vs the $45k that was in the actual award letter, so it was close.
Our situation:
Divorced Bio parents with roughly $195K income between them, no other children. Also, 1 of those bio parents is re-married and the total income between the bio parent and the step parent was about $285K with 1 additional child not in college.
@thumper1 NEU NPC was consistent with the actual award - $0 need. Cornell financial aid office explicitly told me they use the 2 bio parents in divorce cases. The reason you cant just add those 2 together in the npc as if its one household is they make allowances for each households living expenses etc. Also, the income breakdown can make a difference, e.g. if bio parent #1 has lower income and $0 parent contribution due. Their website also says they use a ‘proportional methodology’ for stepparents. I suspect that is lawyer speak for ‘But if you’re re-married to Bill Gates then we reserve the right to use his income too’. I don’t know that for sure tho.
So there’s a lot of factors they could take into account causing some higher income households to still get aid. It would be interesting to run the NPC for some of those scenarios.
Yes, if you are in the $150K-$200K income range it may be worth filling out the FAFSA and CSS Profile for private colleges that meet full need, especially if you have more than one kid in college. We have only one kid, are in this range, and are getting need-based grant aid. I see weird stuff on here all the time – like people saying they have a year’s worth of COA in a 529 so they can’t apply for aid. Really you just have to do the NPCs and fill out the stupid forms, you never know. $10K/yr in aid is hardly a full ride but it does help.
Play around with https://myintuition.org with a 200K income for married parents and only one child. Many scenarios result in aid, and a lot of it.
I did it for Amherst, Harvard and Wellesley with $200k income, only one kid, $100k retirement, $10k cash in the bank, renting a home and got $35k-ish net costs. I’m sure more savings affects things, home equity for some schools and so on, but this is the sort of scenario we see on CC occasionally where the family income has only recently gotten that high and there hasn’t been a lot of time to save. Those families DO get help - if their kids can get into those schools.
That’s the biggest caveat, I think. Admission. More than one kid is one of many variables that affects aid.
I think OP’s post title was completely appropriate.
I am disagreeing with the statements I quoted which both said that there wouldn’t be any money for a $200k family with only one kid in college. @thumper1
I just ran the same numbers for Colgate as I did for A, W and H and got a very similar number. Family expected to contribute 38k plus 2500 work and 2500 loan.
So one in college could clearly still get something - even rather a lot. Even from Colgate.
Edited to add I just ran Colgate again with 2 kids in college. The offer went up by $8k a year.
FAFSA may halve the contribution for 2 vs 1 but we cannot state that all colleges do the same.
There is no question that Colgate and Union do not “halve” the contribution when there are two in college. Profile Schools for two would have each at about 60% of what one would have paid. But of course, the formulas vary wildly.
If you read my post 4, You will see that I agree with what you wrote for this student.
I d think that there were two kids in college at the same time did increase need based aid…as you noted @OHMomof2
I’m not sure we are disagreeing…but my point is…with two in college aid will be higher than with one at schools that guarantee to meet full need.