Out of curiosity does anyone know how much of a discount one is given for family size? And then after that for how many kids one has in college at a time? EFC pushing 55k with one in school and then three more to follow every two years I am wondering if any realistic leeway is given to bigger families (like perhaps I could do the 55k for the first but then my other three would not be eating or living in a heated house for the 4 years their older brother is in college! I haven’t run the numbers and tried googling but can’t find an answer. FAFSA does not make it easy to find answers!
This will vary by school, not so much info from FAFSA. Many net price calculators on the college websites allow you to enter info on other dependents and number in college. You can play with that. And remember that as they graduate out of college, they drop out of the calculation.
The “discount” for family size isn’t very big…unless you have maybe a dozen dependent kids.
The “discount” really is there when you have multiple kids in college at the same time. But of course…then you have multiple bills to pay at the same time?
The “discount” is ONLY at full need colleges. Typically it means that rather than 50-50, the university expects 60-60.
(Imagine your EFC is 60k; with two in college, it doesn’t mean 30+30, but 40+40, roughly.)
Colleges that don’t meet need don’t care whether your financial need increases.
So, if you have 2 in college at the same your financial need increases and they don’t meet need, so, not their problem.
Your best bet is 1° merit 2° need based aid.
Merit aid will not vary and doesn’t depend on income nor need; it often depends on test scores and sometimes also on a nationally-impressive activity. (The bar is very high in that case).
Run the NPC for one child in college then run the NPC for 2 children in college at all colleges listed in #57, as well as Princeton (they have financial aid up to 250K income and reasonable assets) and Vassar (especially good if you’re Pell eligible).
The easiest way to find out what your “discounts” are, is to use NPCs for some schools you have in mind. THe FAFSA EFC is very rarely met. I don’t think there are more than a couple of schools, and I don’t know what they are anymore that guarantee to meet your need as defined by the FAFSA EFC. That number is just the absolute minimum you would be paying unless you get merit money that covers more than your need. It just guarantees you for PELL and other state funds that are a drop in the bucket in covering costs of schools like NYU. You have to fill out the FAFSA at most all schools so that they can get that government money immediately into an aid package if the student qualifies.
THe NPCs are quick and easy to use. You can vary your family size You can play around with income and assets and at some schools, they ask for gpa and test scores of the student. Far more useful, imo than the FAFSA estimators that really tell you nothing about what kind of aid you can expect.
@cptofthehouse @NPT2NAPs4 said their gross income was under $60k.
In other words, they live on less than the OP has in discretionary income.
And they save, in a HCOL area.
They didn’t say they saved $60k.
Sorry @NPT2NAPs4 , I meant to reference @NEPatsGirl with respect to the gross income comment.
Agree. UMCP was crazy hard to get into this year. Congrats. Hope you can make this work!
This is what we are seeing and this is why apps to our in-state schools are through the roof.
Thanks to everyone. I don’t really feel like I need to justify our lives to the community, but I’ll just mention that we had some very challenging times coming out of the Great Recession, having a house under water and making a cross-country move to build new careers. Through it all we tried to be responsible, saving for retirement, building a downpayment for a new house, and digging out of our own student debt etc. It’s only recently that we’re back on more solid footing and moving to the next chapter.
So, all that to say, to those who want to scold, moralize, or finger wag, realize you are not being helpful and may not have the whole story. (Luckily, there’s the ignore function!)
To all who offered encouragement and constructive ideas, thanks so much. It really means a lot.
As some of us said…good to be looking at options now.
A lot more will be able to be considered once your student has taken the ACT or SAT, and has a GPA at least part way through HS junior year. As noted upstream, the better those scores and the higher that GPA, the more options will be available.
Look also at the public universities in your state. See what is available there, and the costs.
Get the book “Paying for College Without Going Broke”.
Look at Colleges that Change Lives. Some great schools there, and some merit potential if the stats are high enough.
Keep an open mind. Look at things beyond college rankings.
You can organize right now with
- test prep (starting in the 10th grade) = really, good test scores will go a long way toward merit scholarships at many universities
- see if you can reorganize resources (might not be possible) or reallocate some funds to start creating a “college fund”. Even if it only funds books, it’s still something.
- contrary to what popular culture would have you think, athletic scholarships aren’t the way to go. Being a recruitable athlete at a D3 college that also offers merit is a better strategy, IF your child wants an undergraduate-focused college AND is strong enough to be recruited at the D3 level (not a given at all) AND is willing to continue playing in college.
- ensure that your children have a rigorous schedule but not an overwhelming one. For merit schools, there needs to be a happy medium. (This strategy is slightly different from applying to “tippy top” universities, where the “most demanding” box MUST be checked. Not here, although it often is. And, unless you live in Texas, no need to worry about rank as long as your child is top 10%).
Typically it means the basics are covered: 4 years of English, 4 years of history/Social science, foreign language through level 4, Math through precalculus or calculus, bio, chem, physics + 1 more, a couple extra classes jr/sr year that reflect academic interests. Then, some would be AP - common choices include AP English Language, one AP history, one AP science or APES (depending on future STEM or not), AP Foreign language (if not STEM), AP Calculus or AP Stats, one AP in an area of interest (CS, Psychology, Economics, Literature…) THat’s 6 Aps, total. - Start checking out the “Colleges that Change Lives” website, go visit a couple in your area, make it clear those are good colleges you’d be proud to see your children attend. Same thing for the public universities’ honors colleges. Make the “dream” one of the excellent scholarships out there, and make it clear they’re real reaches: USC-Columbia Top Scholars, Wilson at App State, etc.
“Normalize” this and hype the colleges. You’re ideally located for many different college visits to large and smaller public universities, religious universities, LACs, etc. (Offer to bring friends to college visits, so the friends can be vowed by a few colleges they’ve never heard of :p). - Buy a Princeton Review’s best colleges this year, Insider’s Guide to the colleges next, and Fiske Guide for the finishing touches :D. Okay, if that’s going overboard and your kids or you wouldn’t enjoy looking for new information in each entry, borrow the first two from the library and only buy the FIske guide. Try to help your kids figure out “fit”. Both St Mary’s of Maryland and UMDCP are excellent, but their “vibe” is very different.
- Try working out what your budget would be. Communicate the information early and explain the rationale. Due to your previous research, show all the instate and OOS schools, public and private, that will be accessible if she reaches X score, gets Z scholarship. This will be difficult for everybody so start early.
Good job running the EFC now! It’s better to face this shock now rather than after your kid gets acceptances and you see the financial aid packages!
As far as the FA aspect goes, I would suggest you work out a budget of what you feel you can reasonably afford and what would be a teeny bit uncomfortable but doable. You know first hand that student debt sucks. It might be unavoiadable for your kids to have some level, but make sure that it doesn’t exceed the limits they can get in federal student loans (what we used to call Stafford). Make sure your kids know the budget. When focusing on college lists, really work at those financial safeties first and most. Those would be colleges your kid can for sure get into and for sure afford. I wouldn’t count on honors programs anywhere though because of you read threads, you will see there are often too many qualified students even for those at many public universities. When you think you have some options, run the Net Price Calculator on the school’s website to see what they have determined your EFC will be. They are not all the same. I can think of 3 schools that all claim to “meet full need” (as they determine it, not me) and there was more than $20k difference between them. As you go, there will be much more to learn about it, but that’s probably enough for a start.
When you have a budget and an idea of what kind of college and program your child wants, there may be posters here with helpful suggestions.
I agree that it’s a good thing that you know what your EFC is likely to be. Sadly, most parents run through these numbers AFTER they have their sights and their kids hopes set on dream schools that may be priced way out of range with no hope of any financial aid. Too many people believe the finances will all work out. A good strong student will get those scholarships, and because they are not wealthy, that there will be financial aid that will make it work.
LOl-A good number of people don’t earn what you have left. I hear people say they live in an expensive area with high taxes as part of a complaint about the system not taking their expenses into account. But many people would give up nearly everything to live in such an area where the schools are decent-but wouldn’t’ be able t afford a hut in such an area. So they live in crappy areas with crappy schools and try to find ways to compensate. Some of us end up mortgaging our huts to afford private schools if we live in crappy area. This “great country” of ours (or should I call it what it’s become (third world country) for some.