Tricky situation with Sibling in School?

Paying for College
1

<p>I face sort of a complicated situation, though it's one I'm sure many other people have faced. I'll be starting college in the fall, and my older sister will be going into her senior year at college. (In other words, we overlap for the one year.) Obviously, financial aid increases significantly when there are two kids in college. So the schools I've been accepted into have offered good financial aid packages, but I know it's just for the one year. My parents have a really hard time letting me go to an expensive school that is offering good money for next year when after that the expenses will skyrocket.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any advice? Is there anything I can ask the financial aid people at these schools to get a better idea of what things will be like after next year? Is there any effective way to plea, given family circumstances and things like that, to ensure that my attending would be doable? I already talked to one school that said (to my utter disdain) that we could expect the parental contribution to DOUBLE after next year. I'm terrified that the other schools will only say the same/similar things...</p>

2

<p>It is extremely likely they will say the same thing. For the FAFSA calculation of the EFC the the formula divides the parent part of the EFC equally between the number of students in college at the same time. So if the parent EFC is $40,000 then it will be divided equally between the 2 students - $20,000 each. Any portion of the EFC based on student assets and income remains the same. When there are no longer 2 students in college the whole parent EFC is expected to be payed for the one student. If you and your sister did not overlap this year your EFC would have been double this year. This is quite standard.</p>

<p>Schools that use css/profile have different formulas for the parent contribution but follow similar guidelines.</p>

3

<p>But what about extenuating circumstances? By next year my parents will likely be separated/divorced, we'll be replacing one of our family cars, and we may likely move as well, depending on the parental situation. Will any of that make any difference, in your opinion?</p>

<p>I hate to trivialize such important matters in terms of what it means for FA, but that's what it's come to...</p>

4

<p>They won't care that you have to replace a car. My car has 170K miles, my husbands truck @ 250K - schools do not care about cars.</p>

<p>The parents being divorced/separated may or may not make a difference. If the schools use css/profile they require financial information of both parents even if divorced. FAFSA only asks for the financial info of the custodial parent.</p>

5

<p>This is something that confuses me..... theoretically (and I'm generalizing and ballparking numbers here) if the parents are paying 20K per year with one student in college this year, and next year with 2 students in college they'll be paying 10K for each student, then there really isn't an out-of-pocket savings ... it's still 20K. So why, if they go from 2 students at 10K each to one student at 20K, would they suddenly be hit twice as hard? It's still 20K total.</p>

<p>I understand that having students overlapping in the long view is more economical -- for example, having tuition costs of 20K/yr for 6 years instead of 8 years -- but in any given year, I don't understand why people always talk about how much better it is with 2 students in college. Can someone explain this to my clueless self?</p>

6

<p>Agreed with Rent...you family's TOTAL contribution will not be increasing as your sibling will no longer be in college. </p>

<p>Perhaps there is more of a concern if your parents are anticipating separating. They are probably concerned about overall family finances, not just the costs of college.</p>

7

<p>Rent, I guess it's just better because each individual student gets more financial aid, since the EFC is divided by two. It's certainly better than a situation like mine, where my sister and I do not overlap at all - she's starting high school as I start college, so while if we overlapped we'd be saving a whole year of college costs, we will be paying 8 years of our EFC instead of 7 (or less) years of our EFC.</p>

8

<p>Thanks for your input, everyone, though I guess I can only feel worse after reading this. I feel so lost right now, I have a week left to decide and things are just so difficult. As I'm sure many of my peers are struggling with, I have the option of going to a cheaper school that I do not like at all or a great school that will impose major financial burdens. This week should be fun...<br>
:-(</p>

9

<p>Canjet, it certainly sounds like your parents have a lot of tough stuff going on, but just as it relates to your assumption that after your sister finishes college that their costs will "skyrocket" I think you and your parents should think that through for a minute. That was the point of my post above. While I suppose there is a possibility of that being the case, it isn't necessarily a foregone conclusion. Definitely check with your first choice college and ask before you just dump the idea of going there at all.</p>

10

<p>Make sure you investigate ALL forms of financial aid that you can assume as a student, including a Stafford Loan, Work Study, private student loans, etc. Have you applied for any and all scholarships you may be eligible for? Also, determine how much you can earn during summers to add to the tuition pool. You could then approach your parents with a 'different' financial aid picture that involves you assuming more of the burden. This may help to move them to supporting your "preferred" school choice. I would caution you about taking on too much undergrad college debt however. Be sure it's really worth the choice you will make.</p>

11

<p>You indicated that you were accepted to some expensive schools that offered very good aid packages. These are likely private schools that use Profile instead of FAFSA-- the Profile (Institutional Methodology) formula is slightly different. Instead of dividing "the parent part of the EFC equally between the number of students in college at the same time," Profile multiplies the parental contribution to the EFC by .60 when two kids are in college concurrently.</p>

<p>So-- Profile doesn't discount the EFC quite as much as FAFSA for two kids in college at once. So this is good news, in your case, since you indicated that you received really good financial aid offers from these schools. You can expect the parental contribution to the EFC to at these schools to increase by about 1.66 X the current contribution (less than the double predicted by the FAFSA formula) in the subsequent year with only one child in college.</p>

<p>A lot depends on student's income and (in particular) assets, though.</p>

<p>Use the calculator at FinAid, set it to Institutional Methodolody, and you can see what the parental contribution to EFC is currently, and you can project what it will be (and what your EFC might be) in a subsequent year with only one child in college.</p>

12

<p>"Canjet, it certainly sounds like your parents have a lot of tough stuff going on, but just as it relates to your assumption that after your sister finishes college that their costs will "skyrocket" I think you and your parents should think that through for a minute. That was the point of my post above. While I suppose there is a possibility of that being the case, it isn't necessarily a foregone conclusion. Definitely check with your first choice college and ask before you just dump the idea of going there at all."</p>

<p>I plan on writing one of my schools a letter explaining the situation. It's just difficult because it's one thing to talk to FA people about money for the UPCOMING year, but to ask about the year after next is a little unconventional. My mom doesn't even want to consider talking to the FA people for that very reason, but I think I need to try. Do you have any advice as to how to approach such a situation? How to word things, what to say, etc?</p>

13

<p>"Make sure you investigate ALL forms of financial aid that you can assume as a student, including a Stafford Loan, Work Study, private student loans, etc. Have you applied for any and all scholarships you may be eligible for? Also, determine how much you can earn during summers to add to the tuition pool. You could then approach your parents with a 'different' financial aid picture that involves you assuming more of the burden. This may help to move them to supporting your "preferred" school choice. I would caution you about taking on too much undergrad college debt however. Be sure it's really worth the choice you will make."</p>

<p>Believe me, I have dug around for as much financial aid as possible, especially in terms of merit scholarships. I already plan on performing work study, and I know I'll have to do the Stafford Loan as well. Any college-specific scholarship relevant to me I applied for, in addition to local/community scholarships. My parents are concerned that I'll bury myself in debt, which I know of course is unfavorable coming out of school. But if it's for the sake of my personal happiness over the next four years, it might be worth the sacrifice.</p>

14

<p>"You indicated that you were accepted to some expensive schools that offered very good aid packages. These are likely private schools that use Profile instead of FAFSA-- the Profile (Institutional Methodology) formula is slightly different. Instead of dividing "the parent part of the EFC equally between the number of students in college at the same time," Profile multiplies the parental contribution to the EFC by .60 when two kids are in college concurrently.</p>

<p>So-- Profile doesn't discount the EFC quite as much as FAFSA for two kids in college at once. So this is good news, in your case, since you indicated that you received really good financial aid offers from these schools. You can expect the parental contribution to the EFC to at these schools to increase by about 1.66 X the current contribution (less than the double predicted by the FAFSA formula) in the subsequent year with only one child in college.</p>

<p>A lot depends on student's income and (in particular) assets, though.</p>

<p>Use the calculator at FinAid, set it to Institutional Methodolody, and you can see what the parental contribution to EFC is currently, and you can project what it will be (and what your EFC might be) in a subsequent year with only one child in college."</p>

<p>I had some trouble following that, but I am well aware of the numbers as they are now. For instance, one of my "favorites" that I was accepted into imposes a total expense of roughly $52,000 a year. For next year, they outlined my financial aid details as follows:</p>

<p>Grant: $27,755
Work Study: $2,800
Federal Stafford Loan: $3,500
Recommended Alternative Loan: $4,000</p>

<p>Total Aid Offered: $38,055</p>

<p>So of course that final number LOOKS good, but it includes $7,500 worth of loans. And again, that's just for next year, when everything is helped out by my sister being in school.</p>

15

<p>Canjet:</p>

<p>So you received an aid package offer from that school of $38K (a bit misleading, perhaps, because they include the 'alternative loan' in the package) for a school with a Cost of Attendance of $52K. So if this is a school that meets full need (not all do), you perhaps had an EFC of about $14K.</p>

<p>The FinAid calculator will help you determine what portion of that $14K came from your parent's income & assets, and what portion came from your income and assets. If you have few assets, and income last year under about 3K, it's likely that nearly all of the EFC flows from your parent's income and assets. Which is to say that you might expect the your EFC the following year (with just one in college) to be around 1.6 X your current EFC. In the example above 1.6 X 14K = about 22K. So you might expect your EFC to increase by about 8K, and your aid package to decrease by a similar amount.</p>

<p>But remember that your family also has fewer kids in college overall- so there might actually be a lower strain on the family finances with just one in college-- depending on what the out-of-pocket expenses were for your sister while in college.</p>

<p>Lots of variables.</p>

16

<p>Well, now you can change the $38,000 to about $35,500-- I just checked online, and apparently my grant went down by about $2,500 after they received my tax information. I guess I can try to appeal that? </p>

<p>And looking at it the way you presented it, sblake7, I don't see how $22 thousand would be at all possible for my family-- it's just too much. :( It's really discouraging to see that, but thanks for the help.</p>

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<p>Canjet, is your sister continuing her education at all? I wonder if she goes at least half-time, would it still effect your EFC. I was told grad school does count, but only if a certain number of hours or credits were being obtained.</p>

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<p>I just saw this thread, so sorry I'm jumping into it late. </p>

<p>Canjet, just call the schools and ask them. They have calculators that will tell them, if nothing else changes, what the difference will be. I am in the same situation. I have three in college next year, then two in college for the next three years, then one in college...</p>

<p>I just contacted the financial aid people and asked them flat out 'what would this package look like with two in college'? And they told me. Of course, a divorce, new job, lost job, etc, can all impact that, so they can't GUARANTEE anything, but they sure can give you an idea to help you choose. </p>

<p>I'm sure they get that request a LOT.</p>

19

<p>First, I really want to thank everyone for helping and conrtibuting their ideas/thoughts/advice. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, things didn't work out for me. I did call the school and found out that, with my sister out of college, my scholarship grant would go from about $25,000 now to about $17,000-- which still seemed pretty good to me. Also, her going to graduate school would likely be considered as having "two children in college." This was not enough for my parents and ultimately the decision was not mine to make. My mom literally filled out the enrollment card and wrote out the check for the less expensive school (that I really don't like/want to attend) and bee-lined to the post office without my consent.</p>

20

I’m reading the posts from several years ago and have a similar issue. I am a sophomore in college and would like to transfer to a larger school that will be a better fit for me. I originally thought my brother would be attending school in the fall and realize now that may not happen or it could be part time. The financial aide package I was provided (including the sibling in school), is hard to take on but I might be able to make it happen if I work hard over the summer. Possibly take on an additional smaller loan (besides the Staffords and Perkins). I am learning now that the sibling not in school could change the financial aide package drastically. I need to tell the school and am thinking of writing an appeals letter to the financial aide office stating why the initial package is vital to my attending the school in the fall. Would you agree with this approach and how much do I really tell them? I can outline the family finances, concerns, etc. I’m wondering if it helps to state that I’ll be looking to continue my education in a masters program? How I plan to earn the balance of the funds that I need with the current package? Why the school is a good fit ?