Multiple Children in School - Financial Aid

Paying for College
21

Post #14 clears it up for me. My son’s private university does say the merit awards are guaranteed. The other schools we looked at said annual FAFSA is only to confirm, not to redo FA calculations. That a catastrophic change either way would be the only situation where the FA package was redone.

I work at a state college, and believe you me, the FA folks are not looking for work to do…

Anyway, yes, fine to put you expect to pay full tuitions, and no, I don’t agree with those who say your EFC is 60,000, so you couldn’t pay full cost for all. We pay 10,000 more than our EFC for my son, and yes, we could pay full cost, but it would break us. But we could pay full cost, and I’m sure the OP could too.

I have a S18, and there is a chance he will go to the same college as his brother. I only hope that they would comply with the 60%-60% = 120% for both. Then again, it is 125% EFC for one right now, so 120% for both would be cheaper to send two!!!

And the NPCs are bullcrap, they are required by law apparently, but no one cares if they are right.

22

@rhandco

The OP has THREE kids in college…and it looks like full pay for all would be $180,000 a year. That’s more than a little bit more than a $60,000 EFC…unless she meant that it was $60,000 per college student per year.

And this family has four kids…and there will be three on college for a bunch more years. That’s a LOT of full pay.

ETA…the 60% per kid allocation is for colleges that use the Profile…and guarantee to meet full need for all. If your college doesn’t guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students, very likely there WILL be a gap,between the COA and your aid received.

23

I reread the original question:
“How, if at all, will the reduced tuition we paid at each school last year, impact our aid package next year? Thank you.”

I am really confused though. I looked at my son’s CSS Profile and FAFSA forms, and I didn’t see anything to list either expected tuition or actual tuition paid on the FAFSA. The CSS Profile was only due initially, and did not need to be filed each year unless there was a substantial change like a parent out of work or getting a job.

Could the OP post the questions that were answered differently? Or when the OP says “we must report”, is that somehow other than the FAFSA?

24

The FAFSA only asks for other children attending school, not the cost of the school or what you paid. The FAFSA doesn’t care (or ask) if the other child is paying $1000 at a community college or $70k at an Ivy. You are not allowed to claim a student at a service academy, but you can list another child even if that child is on full scholarship. I have one who is, and her sister sister still gets credit for having a sibling in school, so the EFC for her is half what it would be if her sister wasn’t in school.

Profile schools can, of course, do whatever they want, meet need or not meet need, put loans in the package or give 100% of COA.

25

@rhandco - The profiles for the schools at which our children attend, each asked specifically for the amounts paid toward college during the prior year. In other words, the profile required submission of the tuition amounts we actually paid at each school for the applicable child.

@thumper1 - My understanding is that schools do not generally guarantee to meet full need for all students. One school advised that there is a limited pool of financial resources for aid and that a documented showing of need essentially acts as entry into the pool, the probability of some aid, but not a guarantee of the full gap between demonstrated need and the COA.

Just to confirm. We have 3 children currently attending college. Each college has an approximate cost in the neighborhood of $60k, i.e., the total gross cost for ONE year of college is approximately $180k. Our decision to apply to these schools, despite an inability to fully be able to pay for all of them at full-rate, was based on advice from friends and family familiar with the FA process to the effect that, with 3 children in college at the same time, we stood a good chance of receiving enough aid to enable us to afford the cumulative cost. There were also factors in our favor including academic success and special talents that we felt could have impact on awards from the respective schools.

26

@BrooklynRye at this point…you have submitted the info…and should receive the aid packages for your returning college students soonish.

Just wait and see. That’s really all you can do.

27

As with so many things on this forum: it all depends on which college(s) you are talking about. There are a number of schools that do guarantee to meet full need for all students. Many schools will not do this. But any reputable school will make its policy known, and will act in good faith to live up to it.

28

@BrooklynRye I’m still confused.

You say you had an INABILITY to pay the full costs of attendance for your kids…but on the Profile…you indicated you would be full pay?

Is that correct? And if so…why?

29

In the first instance of filing for FA, we did so with the full understanding that, short of early admission, we were free to walk away based, if nothing else, solely on economics. We never indicated an ability or willingness to pay full tuition. To the contrary, we advised from the gitgo that we intended to apply for FA. Also, the forms ask for a projected family contribution toward tuition. Needless to say, based on 3 children in college at the same time, this figure was relatively low in each case. All we advised on the profile was the projected cost of the other kids’ colleges assuming full tuition. We are clearly not indicating we can afford full tuition at all 3 schools.

I do not know what the typical family’s ability to fund college is. We were not looking to ‘game’ the system. With 3 kids in college simultaneously, our cumulative number is triple what a more typical family spends with 1 child in college at a time. I am sure there are families in even more dire straits than are we. When our first child went to college, as a solo, we received no financial aid. She took out federal loans and to this day continues with work study. With 3, awards from the 3 colleges differed. I believe that the cumulative COA for all 3 schools for our kids was somewhere in the neighborhood of $190k-$195k. 1 school met full demonstrated need. 1 met approximately 50% of demonstrated need, but this was also the college with which we had a meeting and received a, what we thought, was a remarkably transparent presentation as to how the school calculates and awards FA. The 3rd school, which is also a public school, gave about 60% of demonstrated need but, being a state school at which our daughter is OOS, we were very gratified with the award.

The reason I hesitate in describing the awards (as others have indicated), is that the lines between merit and need-based have blurred considerably. At the 2 schools awarding less than full need, each indicated in meetings reviewing the awards that they were not totally based on need, but in part on merit. Neither provided us with a specific allocation between the two categories although both awards were labeled as “scholarships”.

30

Yes, this is somewhat confusing. It’s not unusual for a parent to hold back on identifying details. But until this ^ post, too much was too vague. I don’t know what we’re supposed to assume. Is the first child the one at a meet full need and she got no aid first year because your ‘family contribution’ is 65k or higher? And the other two colleges are not meet full need, but without knowing something about them, we can’t provide much perspective. (And remind us, are all 3 CSS schools?)

Eg, you’re saying colleges Y and Z gave 50 and 60% of demo need-- but I kinda doubt that’s their policy or some percentage based on what we usually call “demonstrated” need. For all we know, they don’t have much to offer, in the first place. You’re saying those percentages were met, but the schools may be just offering “something” without regard to how much “need” it covers. They may give you some amount, without regard to how much it truly helps you.

It seems you can afford at least 65k total (if the MFN school gave nothing, it’s because your EFC is as high or higher than the cost.)

In general,with vanilla aid (not some special award that only covers one year,) you can pretty much rest assured the next year will be “similar.” FA folks don’t have time to make complex, intricate, rocket-science calculations, every year. But again, how they factor the fact that your actual bills were less than full price, really depends on that college. And we have zero idea what schools (and what we might know of their policies and practices we’ve observed, over the years.) All I know is at least 2 are publics, one kid is OOS, and the other school is MFN.

I still think you were ok to put down full price as the “cost” of the colleges. That’s all you knew, at the time you filled out the CSS. You did not know what discounts will come for next year. (And as I said, this just gives them an idea if one is a 10k college versus a 65k school.)

Separately, different question, they asked what you can contribute. I assume you put in roughly 20 for each, right? That would add up to the 65k. Or whatever number it is, for you, divided by 3.

And also, they ask what you did pay for the current school year.

It would help if you can provide more info.

But as an example: my friend’s twins. One went instate public, less than half the cost of the other’s private. First year, he got X, bringing his costs own to roughly YY. Other kid got more aid, but it also (coincidentally) bought his costs own to about YY. Subsequent years, their packages remained essentially the same. The private kid wasn’t penalized because, for 2nd year, they realized his brother’s public cost less due to scholarships.

Bottom line: from the little we know, I think you answered as best you could. Now it’s wait and see.

31

@lookingforward - As you surmise, it is a bit difficult to balance providing enough specific information to allow for meaningful analysis and discussion, with not over-sharing when it comes to personal financial data. My initial question was intended to be straightforward - Whether aid awarded in previous years is impacted going forward by reporting in subsequent years the lower cost paid for multiple schools due to such awards.

The first child attends public school. She received no grant aid in her freshman year and was only afforded federal loans and work study. Whatever the exact number, she presumably received no direct aid because our EFC was marginally higher than the projected tuition and R&B at the school. The other 2 students are at private school. Once all 3 were in school together, the public school met roughly 60% of demonstrated need.

2 of the 3 schools required a CSS in addition to re-filing the FAFSA.

My understanding is that schools that do not guarantee to meet 100% of demonstrated need, allocate funds based on a combination of the size of the pool of money available for aid, the number of students demonstrating need, and the prioritizing of each such applicant relative to a number of factors including the degree of need. Am sure this is not the same nor even consistent at all schools. This is what we were told by the 2 schools, including the public school, which did not award 100% of demonstrated need. As I indicated, neither school represented in the first instance that they would award 100%. We felt awards from each of roughly 50-60% of demonstrated need, was very generous.

Yes, we indicated what we could afford based on our EFC divided by 3.

Yes, the schools requiring the CSS asked what we paid for schools the prior year.

I very much appreciate everyone’s input, particularly with somewhat less than full specifics. I will report back to this site when we receive (hopefully) our awards.

Btw, I was/am also somewhat distrustful of NPC for reasons cited above. However, in using the NPC at each school in retrospect, 2016-2017 awards in-hand, I have to say that the schools ultimate awards were very much in line with the NPC. The most significant of these being the school that met 100% of demonstrated need – The amount received almost exactly matched the amount of projected need from the NPC. Be very accurate in providing data to these calculators. It seems to help.

32

Following up on this thread with a nod to all who contributed and advised. The 2 private schools raised last year’s awards by about 2.5%, I imagine commensurate with an inflationary raise. Interestingly, the public school raised it’s award by nearly 14%. Not intending to look a gift horse in the mouth, I spoke with a financial aid representative from the school who advised that the allocation of awards (which are a mix of financial and merit) does take into account academic performance. D1 has a 3.8+ GPA over 2 years and was selected as a member of an elite academic scholarship group designated during sophomore year. Thank you all for your input and experiences.