There’s a question in the FAFSA asking if anyone else in the household will be attending college in the 2018-2019 school year, and at the time of me filling out the application, I indicated that it would only be me. But my sister recently started saying she wants to start school at maybe a community college this Spring semester. I have already received and accepted my award letter, and everything regarding my aid is complete. If I update them and let them know that she wants to attend school this year, or if she submits her own application, will that mess me up? Thanks!
With 2 in college you’re likely to get more aid. If your sister does start college update your financial aid forms.
Update when your sister actually is ready to enroll. Right now, you are only guessing she will actually go!
Does your college meet full need? If not, this might not matter at all.
Your sister is just talking. Leave things alone. If she actually does anything, then tell your school.
It could mean more financial aid money for you.
If your school meets full need, they may increase your aid when your sister is enrolled, but they will want to see proof of her enrollment. Your college likely has a specific form to fill out to verify enrollment status. It will be called something like “sibling enrollment verification”. If you Google that term, you’ll find examples from all sorts of different colleges - you’ll see that each college has its own form. Very often the form will ask for the sibling’s cost of attendance at their college-- so if your sister is commuting and only enrolls part-time at community college, it may be that her cost of attendance for spring semester will be too low to materially affect your aid – but that depends on your school’s financial aid policies.
But do update your FAFSA if she does decide to go. The FAFSA just asks if a sibling is in school and not how much it costs or if there are scholarships involved. FAFSA just cuts the EFC in half if there is a sibling in school.
My kids were in school at the same time and neither school asked the cost of the other school or how much was received in scholarships.
Again, each school is different. My daughter’s college form did for COA information and still does. Other schools may be different. If the school does not promise to meet full need with grant aid, it may not matter to them --they may simply want the information for FAFSA purposes. If a school is very generous with financial aid – it similarly may not matter.
So the best thing the OP can do is simply check the website at the college where OP is currently enrolled to see what the form requires; if there is not a form available online, then the OP can call or email the financial aid office for info.
But the FAFSA formula does not ask for the information from the other school. The FAFSA EFC is cut in half.
What the schools does with its own FA is up to the school. I was 2-for-2 with schools that didn’t ask what the other paid or received in aid, but neither school gave my kids need based aid. Both schools gave merit that didn’t depend on the FAFSA formula.
The poster is asking how this MIGHT affect her need based aid. Without knowing her college…we really can’t say anything…except…it won’t make any difference until the sibling is actually enrolled in college…and this student can provide the proof she needs to the college to verify that enrollment.
The FAFSA is a form.
We are 2 for 2 in that both of our kids were required to provide signed written documentation to their schools of the siblings enrollment in college. The FAFSA formula took the number in college into consideration…but nothing would have been done at our kids’ colleges without that enrollment verification.
And unless the school meets full need for all…this might not have a speck of impact on this poster’s need based aid…at. all.
But FAFSA and college need-based GRANT aid are two different things, and we don’t know what the OP is getting. So yes, a sibling in college will cut the portion of the FAFSA EFC that is drawn from parent’s income in half – but not FAFSA EFC derived from student income or earnings. (So, for example, the first year my son & daughter were in college simultaneously, with 2 in college my son’s FAFSA was still ~$10K higher than daughter’s, because he had been out of school and earning money for several years, as well as saving up for college So daughter was Pell eligible at a private college; whereas son was not eligible for any need based aid except perhaps for loans at his public college).
Colleges that are calculating the size of their own need-based grants will based those decisions on factors that go beyond FAFSA EFC.
The OP indicated in a separate thread that OP is a part-time student and Pell eligible … so I’m guessing that the OP probably is not getting college-based grant money – and if not, then FAFSA would be the only thing relevant. If OP is already eligible for a maximum Pell grant, then the sibling enrollment won’t make a difference. But if OP is eligible for a partial Pell grant, then sibling enrollment might increase the amount of Pell funds available.