Because the schools in question that OP is talking about use both the FAFSA and the CSS Profile.
While family may ask for an appeal, it does not necessarily mean that they will get need based aid at each school (remember the overwhelming majority of schools in the country do not meet 100% demonstrated need). The appeal would be based on where the other kids will ultimately attend school.
While the FAFSA EFC may be divided by 4, schools that use the profile or their own institutional forms to determine how they are going to disburse their money. There is a difference between having 4 kids in college and they are all attending the local CC at 5k/year per kid (where no one is getting any aid ) and having 4 kids attending HYP (which will have some really generous FA for each kid).
Because there are 4 kids attending school, the same advice still holds true; sit with your parents to find out how much they are willing to pay/borrow for college and sit with parents to run the net price calculator for each kid at each school where they are submitting an application.
Why the focus on FAFSA EFC, since many schools use different methodology? The students should each run NPCs on several of their prospective schools (including matches and safeties as well as reaches) to get an idea of what costs they are looking at. Then have the family money talk all together with their parents.
Neither school my kids go to, one public and one private, asks for this. Both just asked if there were siblings in school and the names of the schools. Both said to answer No if the sibling was at a service academy (no credit), but neither asked for the net cost of the siblings’ schools. One of my kids has a full ride, but the other kid still gets ‘credit’ for having a sibling in college even though I’m not paying much for it.
@sybbie719 That is kind of what I was getting at. with 1 kid $230k would leave an efc of more than $60 I think. They could each end up with 15-20 in residual.
^Right. But is that really so terrible with an income of 230K? I mean, if it was one student, they’d be probably paying close to that. The fact that they pay that for four years, out of that income, and then have all four kids educated, sounds like a pretty sweet (hypothetical) deal.
Actually these 15-20K per student will be the Parent contribution. Each of quadruplets will also be responsible for Student contribution that is 4-6K even at the most generous schools but can go up to 10K. Then some schools will meet full need with Stafford loans. So the picture will not be that rosy although it is much cheaper when 4 kids are in college simultaneously.
All this is why OP needs to run NPCs and find colleges that don’t pull any fast ones. He or a parent can run them and test with the sibs at higher price colleges vs state. This isn’t so much about Fafsa as the institution’s formula, based on the CSS.
And if there’s some issue (eg, parents own a business,) he may need to gather his $ basics and contact a college, see if FA would walk him through how this would be viewed.