<p>@moonrise,</p>
<p>^^Typically, if everything else income/money-related stays the same, when your son goes to school, your D’s current EFC will be split in half while both kids are in college. When your son does his first FAFSA, your D’s EFC will likely be about 14K, and your son’s EFC will likely be about 14K.</p>
<p>Taking your last question first – Your D’s LAC will see her new EFC as $14K instead of $28K when your D enters your S’s impending college attendance on her FAFSA application… and yes, the LAC will likely adjust your D’s FA package accordingly. It may be adjusted solely with loans – or it may be adjusted with additional scholarships or grants. But yes, she should see some adjustment.</p>
<p>Now onto the general picture regarding your son:</p>
<p>We’re talking about the FAFSA whenever we’re talking about the term ‘EFC.’ So it doesn’t matter which school your son or daughter attends – state school, private school, or whatever. Your child’s FAFSA EFC is independent of your child’s school of choice. The EFC is just a number that is computed by a formula based on the entries on the FAFSA. Same entries on the form = same EFC. The fact that your D is also going to college, and how much she pays, will be entered on your son’s FAFSA – and that end-number (the EFC) will adjust accordingly. But that end-number will be the same end-number no matter where your son decides to go to school, and if all else stays roughly the same, it will be around $14K.</p>
<p>A student lists his/her school(s) on the FAFSA, but that’s just so the schools s/he’s attending/applying to can access the electronically transmitted EFC in order to make their FA calculations. Taking a student’s EFC into account, each school will calculate that student’s FA package using their own formulas and adjustments to determine what they think your child’s contribution should be. </p>
<p>Private schools often have formulas that may modify the FAFSA EFC – sometimes to your student’s advantage, and sometimes to your student’s disadvantage – it just depends on how the school weighs certain elements on the additional forms. Privates will often require the CSS Profile, and possibly even their own FA forms, from which they’ll draw information and, taking your child’s FAFSA EFC into account, they’ll come up with an Expected Contribution that may be higher or lower than the FAFSA EFC, but often in the same general ballpark.</p>
<p>If your son goes to a state school, and the state school uses the EFC straight-out, and that school awards need-based aid based on the EFC, and your financial situation stays the same between now and then, then his Expected Contribution at the state school will likely be around $14K. If the state school costs $21K (and if all the other statements at the start of this paragraph apply), then he will likely get some sort of aid in the amount of the difference, or $7K in this example (which may come in the form of loans, or some conglomerate of loans and scholarships/grants, or all scholarships/grants).</p>
<p>If your son goes to a private school, same thing – except for the fact that many privates use other sources in addition to the FAFSA (like the CSS Profile or their own FA forms) to come up with a number that’s often in the general vicinity of the EFC, give or take some indeterminate amount. If the private school determines that your son’s Expected Contribution is more like $12K (instead of $14K, let’s say), but the cost of that private is $38K, then your son’s FA package may well be in the vicinity of $26K. That sounds pretty good, right? $26K in ‘awards’ compared to the state school’s ‘mere’ $7K?? But again, that $26K might contain loans, or scholarships, or a mixture of the two. So, the private school may (and probably will) still cost considerably more, even though the EFC or private school’s computed Expected Contribution remains the same or less!</p>
<p>If your son is a contender for huge scholarships, then all bets are off! No school – state or private has to abide by the EFC. If they want really want your kid to attend, they can offer the whole price of admission, and then some, in Financial Aid, even if the kid’s EFC says he can afford $36K a year to attend. And they can call that aid ‘need-based grants’ if they desire.</p>
<p>If your son is not a likely contender for huge scholarships, and if your financial situation remains roughly the same between now and then, then you can expect your overall EFC, for both kids’ schools combined, to remain roughly the same at $28K. However, since schools can give need-based aid in the form of loans, your total costs may or may not be higher than $28K – because the amount that one calls ‘Cost of Attendance (COA)’ should naturally include not only what you are expected to pay (your EFC or a private school’s computed Expected Contribution), but also any loans that are ‘awarded’ in your kids’ need-based FA packages!</p>
<p>And finally, as someone pointed out a few years ago, the EFC can be virtually meaningless, as schools are not required to award your student the difference between published Cost of Attendance and your student’s EFC.</p>
<p>I hope this helps! It can be really confusing when you first try to soak it all in!</p>
<p>Best of luck to you! :)</p>