What is the change in FAFSA next year?
Families with multiple kids attending college wonât have their expected contribution per child reduced accordingly.
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Additional kids no longer split your EFC. This year if your EFC was, for example, $10000, it would have been divided equally between 2 kids, each kid with a EFC of $5000. Next year each kid will have a $10000 EFC. There are also changes in the formula expanding Pell grants at the very low end. This coming year I have 4 in college (2 in Grad school, 2 in UG) so our EFC is split 4 ways. The Grad school kids graduate next year, and the 2 left in UG, will no longer be split. So our EFC will be x4 for each of the 2 remaining in college. We have to rule our FA heavy schools, that are affordable this year.
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There are also significant changes affecting divorced parents.
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I see, thanks for the explanation.
And since we only have 2 in college THIS year (before the change) that change wonât really hurt us. Our EFC is $15,600 for my son this year and we expect it to be about $31k or $32k next year (which is what we had with my daughter for 3 years and she still received aid, just not as much as they will receive for the 2023-2024 school year.) Pretty sure we can blame an old guy Senator (Sen. Grassley) who doesnât even have to worry about kids in college! He pushed for the change saying it was unfair to parents who had their kids spread out and not in college at the same time. A mom I know with triplets told me âyeah, I planned this to cheat college costs 
â Lol. I donât know of one parent who was complaining because someone got a discount for 2 or 3 in college just because they had kids attend more spread out. Just a made up problem!
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I know, and that is the argument you get from parents, it is not my fault you spaced your kids so close. It is not my fault you didnât. My kids are close because we are older parents. I didnât have 4 kids close together to cheat college costs, but to beat my geriatric maternal age. I wish our income doubled with every kids we had.
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The funny thing is we thought we timed it well with the kids 4 years apart but my daughter took a year off during Covid so she actually saved us some money this year and helps reduce the the pain of future increases. We call this our bonus year, avoiding the new FAFSA rule and benefiting with 2 in college for the upcoming year.
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I think the idea is to level the field and not to try to take into account one set of facts that advantages one group over another. Usually ends up with everyone unhappy (as we are seeing).
An argument could be made that older parents had more time to save before they had children. Or that parents who had their children at an earlier age have more time after their children are done with school to âcatch upâ on savings. Instead, everyone will be equally un-advantaged in the new system (it seems to me). The new system only really rewards those who have the money not to really need it at all.
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UT Austin: $200
UT Arlington: $150 (I think lolâŠcanât remember if that was enrollment deposit or housing deposit or orientation feeâŠmoney has been flowing out like water between the twins and their separate schools lol)
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Not quite sure how it levels the field. If you make $100000, you EFC for 1 kids is $20000. Why is it then with 2 kids, if you still make $100000 your EFC jumps to $40000 ($20000 X2)? The advantage clearly go to the one with 1 kid, who technically should have more money save up because they were providing for 1 kid, instead of 2?
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Because every family who has two children and the same income now has the same EFC. Instead of one family having an EFC of $20k for 2 children because their children are within 1-4 years of one another, and another family with the same income having (effectively) an EFC of $40k for 2 children because their children are spaced farther apart than 4 years.
Now both families have an EFC of $20k per child, no matter when the children were born. Thatâs the leveling.
ETA: Thatâs why I said in my original post - Everyone will be equally un-advantaged in the new system.
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The idea is that someone who has twins should not pay less than someone who has two kids that are five years apart.
Currently according to the EFC (which schools that use the CSS often donât even use) the EFC for that family with twins would be $20,000/year total â $10,000 each. That is a total of $80,000 for both kids to attend school for four years.
But for the family who has kids five years apart, they would pay $20,000 per year for the first kid, and then when the second kid started school, they would pay $20,000/year for that kidâs school. That is $160,000 for both kids to attend school for four years.
The new FAFSA formula removes this âdiscountâ for having kids close together.
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Itâs definitely cheaper to have only one kid. Or no kids! 
If your EFC is $20K per kid per year, the idea is that in the end, you would pay a total of $80K per kid for a 4 year degree, regardless of whether they are twins (in college at the same time) or spaced 4-5 years apart.
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Thanks for the explanation. I get the logic now.
The new policy does create some weirdnesses, though.
I know a household that, as a result of a blended family situation (that includes sets of multiple births), has eight children who will all be in college at the same time (projecting grade levels forward, assuming they all attend college, et cetera).
It is very possible that under the upcoming policy their total EFC for those children could be more than their household incomeâand that seems wrong, you know?
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Iâd love for FAFSA to account for cost of living, though I know it will never happen. 
200k in Los Angeles, New York, of San Francisco is not equivalent to 200k in Kansas City or Bentonville.
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Iâm not familiar with the FAFSA but presumably it takes family size into account?
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Laughed a bit at this. Yes, I am sorry that it took almost 7 years to conceive my first child, then an additional 4 years plus $$$ plus a couple months in a freezer to have my second (S23), and lastly $$$$ and 2 years to adopt our third (S25). 
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It does, but itâs a diminishing returns sort of thing.
Basically, the system is set up to deal with âordinaryâ situations very efficiently, but things get weird at the margins.
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