sending you a DM so I don’t clog the thread:)
Does a “meets need” school mean that they offer need-based scholarship to bring tuition, room & board, and fees down to the family’s EFC? If so, how do different “meets need” schools offer different financial aid packages?
Meets-need means they bring those costs down to what they think your family can afford. It’s almost never what the family thinks.
EFC is based on FAFSA. Meets-need schools use a more in depth form called the CSS Profile, which takes a deeper dive into the family’s assets (including home equity among other things).
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NYU accepted my daughter to Honors College and gave CAS scholarship of $40000.
Colleges either give you acceptance, scholarship and honors college or they reject you completely. Nothing in between. I don’t understand.
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Thanks for the explanation. We just got the FA package from one “meets need” school and they awarded enough need-based aid to match our EFC to the penny. Too bad our EFC is ridiculously high and unaffordable for us 
Yeah, not sure if schools are changing things this year or what. In the past, EFC was a rough guide that schools would use in combination with their own institutional methodologies. This year seems different. I’ve seen the EFC listed, and then they match up all the grants, loans, work study to come out to the EFC.
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That’s the joke of this process. They (the school) think they’re being generous by offering a good amount of money but then they still expect you to pay a ton and that doesn’t even count all the extras! I honestly don’t know where they get some of these numbers. It’s like they don’t take into consideration that people have other expenses.
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Or other kids. We have two younger kids. None will be in college at the same time. Had I known our total EFC would remain the same if we had two (or three!) in college at the same time, I would have made sure to pop out a kid every year (instead of every fours years) - lol.
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That is funny except it’s not really because next year I will have 3 in college!! When one of mine did ED and we had to do the CSS her financial aid came back way before the other one (I have twins). It was a crock because the net calculator had one price and the FA not even close. So I called and asked if they even calculated the fact that there would be two and they said yes. They don’t even factor in how much a second college could cost. Needless to say no shocker once the second one came back in April. This go around we didn’t waste our time so 3 kids and crazy tuitions although one is considered an independent I just remembered so we can’t do Fafsa for her anyway so technically it’s 2. I’m divorced and their father is remarried as I’m
I do all 4 parents resources count which really shouldn’t factor in but they do. Anyway, I’m just glad one got residency now and it’s a lot cheaper!
This year they just changed that and FAFSA will not give you an advantage for more kids in college from next year cycle.
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This is terrible!! I have a strong feeling the college tuition bubble will soon burst. Most kids are spaced two years apart. There is no way parents can continue to afford college if having multiple children in college isn’t taken into consideration when determining EFC and financial aid.
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I’m so sorry 
I didn’t realize things had recently changed. Why would they do this? College tuition bubble will burst soon. Hope it happens soon!
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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/your-money/fafsa-changes-college-aid.html
According to this link they won’t consider the number of students from the dame household.
When my first child is applying to colleges covid problems and when my second chi/ld will apply, FAFSA changes. This is called luck!
hopefully the css profile and individual schools still count this information
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I hate this. For the next two years I’ll have three kids in college. I’m a single mom. It makes me sad and it worries me.
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@Creaky Did you guys get any FA this year? If yes and if you don’t rack up a ton of equity and assets, and make over $110k, you will be ok?
I think there is a petition going on opposing this. If remember I signed it. I will look for it and send you. We all should do something about it.
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CSS profile counts this information. I am a bit confused by CSS profile. If CSS profile and institutional methodology gives you a smaller EFC than FAFSA, which one will be used for the financial aid?
I agree that this change will increase financial burden on families with more than one kid in college. OTOH I read the reasoning of putting that in the bill, and some congress persons felt that families shouldn’t get a benefit for having kids in college at the same time.
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That is so bad. These congress persons will have so much money and have ways not to pay the tax and they don’t understand our difficulty.
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