<p>Hope to get some expert advice from the senior people on this forum:</p>
<p>Basically, this question relates to two similar situations. </p>
<p>If a student enters college with a certain FA package, and then a sibling begins college during the older student's sophomore, junior or senior year, how do you know (or not) if the reduced EFC at the older sibling's college will be composed of loans or grants?</p>
<p>And vice versa, if there are two siblings in college, and one graduates, the EFC will double, but do they take away the grants or the loans?</p>
<p>Can you get things in writing, if they say at admission time that they will add grants or reduce loans in this situation? Or will FA offices just not make any commitments?</p>
<p>It seems that there is a big risk of getting a lot more loans than originally planned when siblings begin or leave college.</p>
<p>It all depends on the SCHOOL…there are no rules that apply to ALL schools.</p>
<p>Need based financial aid is computed ANNUALLY, not for four years. The school will NOT give you a commitment on your eligibility for need based aid for four years because as you noted, your financial situation could well change.</p>
<p>At schools that meet full need for all students (there are not that many of those), if a second child enters college, you should see an increase in need based aid from a school that meets full need. Conversely, if you have two in college an one graduates, you will see a reduction in your need based aid as your family contribution will increase.</p>
<p>For schools that do NOT meet full need…you might not see a change at all. DD was a college freshman the year DS was a college senior. He got an additional $250 in grant money…woohoo…and NO that did not cover his need.</p>
<p>Which schools are you considering? Are they CSS Profile schools? do they meet need and/or have generous or harsh formulas?</p>
<p>As Thumper noted, each school does things differently. </p>
<p>And, CSS Profile schools don’t split family contribution in half 50/50…it’s more like 60/60. And if one of the schools uses a harsh formula (like Boston College), then it can really be hard to predict.</p>
<p>We are in this situation where we could come up with a small need figure this year with one student a senior and the other an incoming freshman. I doubt we will get anything other than subsidy for a bit of the Staffords if they are taken. That will happen only if my younger son is accepted to a top priced private school. If that should happen, and if that school offers to meet full need and if we meet need by their definition, maybe there will be some offerings. My older son’s school does not guarantee to meet full need, so I would not count on getting anything from them. I 'd be delighted to get even $250 in grant money in his case. What will probably happen is that we will be told that part of the Stafford loans the students can take will be subsidized while they are in college.</p>
<p>It is more likely that my younger son will go to a school with a cost that will bring us under EFC, so we’ll get nothing. But the only time anyone is likely to see a big difference in aid is if both students are going to colleges that guarantee to meet full need and you fit their definitions of need, and the college give grants rather than loans to meet need. Usually what happens is that you are offered more loans.</p>
<p>Similar situation here. This year we had a senior and a freshman. S1 did not qualify for need-based aid with- or with-out a sibling in college. But his Stafford loan offer did go from unsubsidized to subsidized. S2 was offered a fairy hefty need-based grant from his school (which I believe does promise to “meet need”). But we are sure that next year, that need-based aid will disappear, as his EFC will double and we will have one less in our household count. We did not contemplate asking the school to project our award into future years.</p>
<p>I have had either one or two kids in college every year since 2004.</p>
<p>I honestly have seen no difference from year to year in each child’s EFC, whether I had one or two in school. Supposedly the parent’s portion is divided in half when there are two kids, but my bottom line per child has remained unchanged for some reason.</p>