<p>I've been told that the number of students in college will affect financial aid; does it matter what the cost of the school is (costs certainly vary). Does it matter if it is a public or private college siblings are attending? Does it matter how much aid, of any type, a sibling is receiving?</p>
<p>Is the age of the parent important? (I've heard it's does if the parent are over age 60.) How much does home equity matter and the type of debt one has?</p>
<p>Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>Generally speaking, the more children in college, the lower the expected family contribution (EFC) for each one. The type of college and the aid others are receiving does not matter.</p>
<p>Bear in mind, though, that at all but a tiny handful of highly selective colleges, what you will wind up paying will be more than the EFC, often substantially more; and at all but an even smaller subset of that tiny handful, a substantial portion of the aid will be in loans and/or work study.</p>
<p>For schools that require only the FAFSA (and not the CSS PROFILE), home equity is not considered in the financial aid calculation, nor is the value of most small businesses, but most other assets are. A fixed amount of those assets are shielded, depending on the age of the older parent:</p>
<p>Age of…Protected…Protected
older…if 2 parent…if 1 parent
parent…household…household
45…$42,900…$14,900
46… 44,000…15,200
47… 45,100…15,500
48… 46,200…15,900
49… 47,400…16,300
50… 48,800…16,700
51… 50,000…17,100
52… 51,200…17,500
53… 52,800…18,000
54… 54,300…18,400
55… 55,600…18,800
56… 57,300…19,300
57… 58,700…19,800
58… 60,400…20,300
59… 62,200…20,800
60… 64,000…21,400
61… 65,800…22,000
62… 67,700…22,600
63… 70,000…23,200
64… 72,000…23,800
65 or over … 74,000…24,500</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf</a></p>
<p>There are two types of aid: Aid from the Federal government. Pell Grants for very low income families and loans. Any student can take out student loans and any credit worthy adult can take out PLUS loans (Parent loans). Any federal aid requires a parent(s) and student to fill out the FAFSA. On the FAFSA it does ask how many kids are in college and it will adjust your EFC or estimated family contribution accordingly. The EFC does not mean that is what you will pay for college, it is an “index” of sorts for allocating federal aid. Home equity is not used in the FAFSA calculations. Age of parents in considered. If your sibling has an EFC than rule of thumb is your EFC will be roughly half. You will do your own FAFSA just like your sibling and your parents will basically input into two different FAFSAs yours and your sibling.</p>
<p>Some colleges distribute institutional aid/scholarships/grants/merit money and some offer it automatically based on GPA and other information and some have separate applications to fill out.</p>
<p>Some colleges minority not majority, mostly private a few public, use separate financial aid forms, Most use the Collegeboard Profile, some have their own forms. These forms take into consideration many items not used on FAFSA. These forms are are used to distribute institutional aid/scholarships/grants, etc.</p>
<p>Debt is not considered on the FAFSA and debt is not considered on the institutional forms. However, if there are unusual medical bills or circumstances a student might be able to file an aid appeal at some point. There is a “space” on the institutional forms generally to explain any unusual circumstances.</p>
<p>The best advice is to read carefully the financial aid pages for every college you are interested in and to have conversations with your parents how they will handle having two in college.</p>
<p>When computing EFC via the Federal Methodology (FAFSA), the parent contribution is divided by the number of children in college - so with two kids in college, the parent contribution is divided by 2. Schools that use the CSS Profile and compute EFC via the Institutional Metholodogy are not quite as generous. Instead of an equal 50% contribution for each child with 2 in college, IM would calculated the parent contribution at 60% for each of the two children.</p>
<p>Thank you all! I will have three in college at the same time eventually - how will that be calculated using both methods? Can anyone answer why a single parent family has a smaller percentage (i.e less than half) shielded than a two parent family?
How about declining housing values?
Does the cost of a sibling’s school matter when to comes to applying/getting aid? E.g. if oldest student gets a scholarship will that aid impact the younger students when they go to school; if one goes to an expensive school and the others go to public college, will that impact aid or vice versa?</p>
<p>
If you have more than one student in school at the same time the part of the FAFSA EFC generated by parent information is divided equally between the # of students in college. Schools that use CSS or their own forms for institutional aid may not uses this formula. (for instance on CC I have often seen that they may reduce the EFC by only 40% if their are 2 in school).</p>
<p>
Yes, the cost of the school will affect the FA. FA + EFC can not exceed the COA of the school. However many (most) schools do not promise to meet full need. Federal aid does not cover the cost of even 4 year public Us, so unless a school offers their own institutional aid (many do not), their will often be unmet need.</p>
<p>
Not as far as federal aid. Each school is concerned only with the student attending their school.</p>
<p>
Not really. An older parent gets a little more asset protection. Other than that a parents age makes no difference. It is income and assets that count.</p>
<p>
For FAFSA the equity in the primary home is not reported. For CSS it varies by school. </p>
<p>
The only dent that matters on FAFSA is debt against a reportable asset. So if you have a mortgage on a second home it would reduce the reportable value of that asset. Other debt is not considered at all. (though debt for say medical expenses may be considered for professional judgement amendment).</p>
<p>
No. We often wonder about it. The formula is set by the government and they work in mysterious ways.</p>
<p>I’m still wondering how the cost of sibling’s schools affect the other child’s financial aid. Do schools share financial information with each other when it comes to awarding aid? I’ve heard that if an older sibling attends a less expensive school, the younger student will receive less aid.</p>
<p>FAFSA only schools just use FAFSA data - they will not know or care what sort of aid a sibling is getting at a different school or how much the school is costing the family.</p>
<p>Schools that use their own forms do ask a whole bunch of questions about family finances. Whether they take into account what sort of school a sibling is attending would depend on each school. They all use the data differently. (My hunch would be that they will not give more aid just because a sib is attending an expensive school - why would they give more of their own money to effectively support another institution?).</p>
<p>I doubt that schools share FA info. They have enough to do keeping up with their own students let alone worrying about students at other schools. The only time our schools have even asked about which school a sibling attends is in the FA verification process to ensure that a sibling was actually attending college as stated on FAFSA (because it affects the EFC).</p>
<p>Yes, but if a sibling was attending a less expensive school (or receives substantial aid, e.g. scholarships), would that affect a financial aid award? Do schools ask how much a parent contributes for each of their children?
What percentage of a parent’s income is expected to be contributed? I’ve heard it about one-third of their annual income.</p>
<p>The assumption is that parents aren’t paying for college solely out of annual income. Again as swimcatsmom says FAFSA only schools might verify attendance at another college for a sibling but how that other siblings financial aid is assembled is not generally a concern. I can’t remember if the institutional form specifically asks what parents are paying for a siblings school, I vaguely remember a question about costs of private high school education. </p>
<p>Why are so concerned about your sibling and those costs? You should have a conversation with your parents about what they can contribute toward your education. That would be a good starting point for crafting a list of potential colleges for you.</p>
<p>OP is the parent who is anticipating three in college at the same time. </p>
<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using CC App</p>
<p>Ah the questions make sense now, I thought it was a student asking.</p>
<p>RE: the cost of the first child impacting siblings FA.
In my experience it CAN effect the following children’s FA package. My D1’s school requires a “sibling enrollment verification” form which lists the D2’s school, and net costs. I would check the colleges the younger students are applying to and see what forms they may require. You can also call the FA office. D1’s school is very generous (full need met - no loans) but I am sure they want to know what D2’s school net costs are when awarding their aid (they do take D2 into consideration). </p>
<p>It all depends on the particular school. D1’s school requires a signed form from D2’s school. D2’s school requires the tuition bill from D1’s school. Both schools consider my net cost (not the COA). These are great questions to ask while visiting schools - do they consider the expense of a siblings attendance or just the fact that 2 (or more) students are attending college.</p>
<p>Is it worthwhile at all to mention your EFC to the schools in regard to the amount of aid they grant? Seems like it probably isn’t, but just asking. Isn’t school aware of FAFSA EFC? Is there an EFC for the CSS Profile?
Can one find out how much a school expects the student to contribute?</p>
<p>The only certain way to know what a particular school will expect you to pay is to apply, get admitted, and wait for the financial aid letter.</p>
<p>Schools are certainly aware of the student’s EFC - when you file FAFSA you’ll have to select the schools to send your children’s data to so the FA office can package them and process their awards. CSS Profile data also goes directly to the school, if they require it.</p>
<p>FAFSA specifically asks the number of college students in the household (other than parent-students) and it reduces your FAFSA EFC accordingly by roughly distributing the parent’s portion of the EFC among all of the family’s students.</p>
<p>Many schools do expect a student contribution, even if the EFC is 0. Some schools openly publish that on their websites - particularly the schools that guarantee to meet 100% of need. If the school doesn’t already use loans to help meet need, the student is free to take Stafford loans to make up their contribution.</p>
<p>I think your best place to start would be by using the online calculators on the college board site to determine your expected EFC for FAFSA (and Profile if your kids are considering any of the 300 or so Profile schools). College Board also has net price information for many schools (all schools are required by law to have this information available shortly). If your EFC is more than what you’re willing to spend per year (and realize that many colleges will expect you to pay more than your EFC…sometimes much, much more), I would suggest researching schools that are likely to offer good merit aid to your kids.</p>
<p>As annasdad says, the only way to really know what a school will offer is to apply and get the award letter. If you’d like to understand the FAFSA EFC formula better, there are worksheets and tables to help you follow the calculation:
<a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/101310EFCFormulaGuide1112.pdf</a></p>
<p>For further reading, I’d recommend finaid.org or the annually updated “Paying For College Without Going Broke” which is widely available and may be in your library.</p>