<p>still in school, has the EFC doubled, and if so, did your financial aid take a big hit? </p>
<p>We want to send DD to private, but are wondering if schools REALLY cut your aid when child #2 graduates and you only have 1 left. </p>
<p>What are your experiences? Did you not send your child to a private because of this?</p>
<p>Your EFC will be the same (unless you have a change in salary, etc.) but you’ll only have one student in college, so, yes, you can expect the school to alter its package. This is why merit scholarships are so valuable, because they are usually constant for the four years of undergrad, whereas financial aid is not. </p>
<p>In our case, the child still in school lost a small grant and work-study, but maintained the hefty merit scholarship. Campus jobs are still plentiful, so the loss of work-study shouldn’t be a problem, according to the school.</p>
<p>The merit scholarship was a factor in the college selection. The change in EFC was anticipated.</p>
<p>If your child has need based aid, and your need changes…your aid will change too. SO if your child’s EFC doubles, then it his highly likely that their need based aid will be adjusted down.</p>
<p>I’m not sure the effects can be predicted, but I’ll share out experience. When D#2 was ready for college we were certain she’d get significant financial assistance, given that her older sister was in private school consuming half our after-tax income. Nope. Nada, zero. (And yes, I’m sure I filled out the forms correctly.) Obviously, older sister’s graduation had no effect on the younger sister’s financial aid package. Zero in … zero out. YMMV.</p>
<p>Here is our experience. Son #1 was awarded a very nice 4 year scholarship. Son #2 started 2 years later. #2 was awarded a scholarship, grant money, sub. Stafford and work study. Son #1s package did not change. Son #3 started 2 years after #2. #1 has now graduated. #2s package stays pretty much the same. #3 is offered a nice scholarship, a grant, sub. Stafford and work study. When #2 graduates, #3 has his scholarship and an unsub. Stafford. Our out of pocket expenses were pretty much the same from the time #2 started until this spring when our #3 graduates. (And we get a big raise!!!)</p>
<p>Yes, I would think only having one left would have a major impact on your FA. If your EFC is $50 k for 2 kids, that works out to $25k for each kid. If only one is left in school, then your EFC becomes $50K for one kid. I’m not sure it works exactly that way, but I think it’s close.</p>
<p>Reverse example: We received $0 in FA for S his first 3 years. Next year, when he’s a college senior, his sister will be a freshman. Viola - our EFC dropps from $49k this year for him alone, to $29k next year for him and $28k for his sister (he earned more at his summer job last year then she did). Since his school costs $50k, we should be getting some FA next year… finally… but then after he leaves, we’ll be back to paying the whole cost for D.</p>
<p>I’m going through that now and will again. We’re looking at S2’s packages differently than with S1 because as some posters pointed out the packages for S2 that have renewable scholarship/merit money with a GPA requirement to continue for 4 years are more “valuable” since S1 will graduate after S2’s freshman year. It’s interesting because a couple of the colleges packaged up much help for S2 that would not continue probably in anticipation that we would be able to afford more the following years or at least until S2’s senior year when S3 will be a freshman.</p>
<p>Our experience is yes. I had them in school together for two years, and each has/d two years on his/her own. </p>
<p>We paid almost twice as much to each school when there was only one. </p>
<p>If they had gone to school together we’d have saved a lot of money. It made me happy I took the advice of the psychologist who discouraged me from holding my fall birthday son back from kindergarten which was the rage here.</p>
<p>Saved thousands of dollars.</p>