<p>I have experience with both Duke and Dartmouth financial aid and can report that both schools will expect a parent contribution of 60% with two in college and 45% with three in college. In fact, this is part of the consensus methodology agreed upon by the 568 President’s group of schools.</p>
<p>Here is a Duke FA link that provides more detail on some of the exceptions, including if the second child is at a community college or military academy:</p>
<p>dukedad-thank you so much for the information and the link. The NPC still doesn’t reflect those percentages, but it did clarify two things for me. First, I see that the “student self help portion” of $7200(as ucb was previously trying to explain) never decreases and has to be subtracted from the percentages. Also, I see that the $2100 student contribution never decreases either, so that must be subtracted out. Even after eliminating that $9300 from the picture, the parent contribution is not shrinking to 60% and 45%.</p>
<p>Even after eliminating that $9300 from the picture, the parent contribution is not shrinking to 60% and 45%.</p>
<p>I haven’t read each post, so maybe this has been addressed. </p>
<p>Are you full pay with one child in college? If so, then those calculations for multiples would only be true IF CSS schools figured that you ONLY could pay exactly the COA for one child and nothing more. Does that make sense? </p>
<p>Those 60/60 and 45//45/45 splits do not apply when income/assets are too high and the “real” family expected contribution is much higher than COA for one student…</p>
<p>What I mean is this. CSS schools don’t give family contributions that are greater than COA as FAFSA will do with EFC. So, a family with one child in college, never sees a CSS family contribution of $99k, like it will for a FAFSA only school.</p>
<p>So, if your “real” CSS contribution for one child would really be - say $75k, then adding multiples will not give you those splits. </p>
<p>When one Cornell mom’s first child attended a top full need school, she got no aid (reported on CC a couple of years ago). When she had two attending Cornell, she got a tiny bit of aid for each student. She wasn’t given a 60/60 split like she was told by friends to expect because the family income/assets were still too high. When she asked for review, she found out that Cornell (and likely other CSS schools) believed that the family’s financial situation was one where they could afford to be nearly full pay for both kids. If I remember correctly, Cornell told her that it believed that the family could pay about $90k per year…so obviously, not a 60/60 split.</p>
<p>I think that if CSS schools provided some number to families with one child attending that gave them a better idea of what these schools have calculated, then those with future multiples would know what to expect. If you’re told that you have a CSS “family contribution” of $99k, then you already know that you’re not getting aid when the second child goes.</p>
<p>*dukedad-thank you so much for the information and the link. The NPC still doesn’t reflect those percentages, but it did clarify two things for me. First, I see that the “student self help portion” of $7200(as ucb was previously trying to explain) never decreases and has to be subtracted from the percentages. Also, I see that the $2100 student contribution never decreases either, so that must be subtracted out. Even after eliminating that $9300 from the picture, the parent contribution is not shrinking to 60% and 45%.
*</p>
<p>the student self help and student contribution will INCREASE as students progress. Loan amounts increase and “summer work expectation” increases. And, sometimes WS increases. </p>
<p>By the time students are juniors, the various student portions could be:</p>
<p>7500 stafford
1500 Perkins
3000 Work Study</p>
<h2>3000 student summer work contribution</h2>
<p>That’s $15k coming from the student in various ways.</p>
<p>Please note that things are changing very quickly these days and colleges are getting tighter with their financial aid and other such things. At one time, and this is still the case with many schools and is definitely the case with the official EFC, what you are expected to pay for each student was not/is not affected by what you are actually paying for each student. In, other words if your parental EFC is $50K, and you have two kids in college, the EFC for each kid is $25K. Whether one kid goes to a military academy and essentially gets paid to go to college would not make a penny’s difference on the other kid’s EFC. And so it also worked for most all colleges with the PROFILE formulas.</p>
<p>But there have been exceptions, where they do classify colleges. Technical colleges, community colleges are sometimes given different treatment in formulas. Most colleges will ask where the other siblings are going to college, they do verify that the sibliling are indeed enrolled as full time students, and it’s not that big of a jump to ask what the parent is paying for that school. It gets messy, but, hey, it can save money. And there is a strong rationale that a parent with two kids, both in collleges that charge top dollar have a whole different problem from one that has one kid in a far less expensive school or on a full ride. I am hearing and seeing these things being taken into account when at one time, it was just the category of schools that the other student was in that was taken into consideration.</p>