My twin college seniors (one boy, one girl) have applied to several of the same schools-midsize private schools in the midwest. These are schools that we expected that they would receive merit awards based on their ACTs and gpas. My son has a higher ACT (32 to my daughter’s 29), a slightly higher gpa and and more AP/honor classes and Eagle Scout. Their merit awards have been generous and similar (within 1-2k of each other). At both of the schools that have already sent their financial aid package- my daughter has received large grants (10-14k per year) in addition to the merit aid.
We are happy for her but are confused…on paper my son looks like more of an attractive candidate and we are surprised by the grants that she is receiving where he has received no financial aid at one school and a 1k grant at the second. Is it possible that he filled out something incorrectly so it doesn’t look like he has siblings in college? We also have another child who is a current sophomore in college.
Also, is the stated EFC number divided by the number of students? For example- if my son’s EFC is 21K, does that mean we are expected to contribute $21K to his college costs or $21k spread among him and his two siblings?
I think that would somehow seem ungrateful for the $ we were given for our daughter. Since financial aid is not a given beyond the standard loan, there is nothing that schools are obligated to give.
Is the grant merit or need based? If it’s need based, definitely contact the school because there could be an error somewhere. If it’s merit based, then there may be something about your daughter that school wants - maybe her major? At my dd’s schools students applying to majors that are very popular rarely get merit money so sometimes it looks “unfair” that lower stats kids are getting money.
It’s not ungrateful to esquire about FA packages. The college accepted both kids, obviously because they want both. You are genuinely confused about the disparity in aid, and what you, as a family will have to pay in total for both kids at that college.
Make the call to the FA people.
I would look into it. If the merit is the same, the FA should be the same unless one has more assets in their own name. That difference would have to be around $40k to drive a $10k FA difference. Make sure that you understand the impact when your oldest is no longer in college. The other 2 FA awards will likely decrease.
I have friends who have fraternal male twins. They got very different merit aid awards. One got >50% tuition at U of Santa Clara and the other got >50% tuition at U SoCal. Both Us refused to give the other twin more merit aid, despite the grant offered by the peer institution. Both were trying to get engineering degrees. Both attended the U that offered them significant merit aid. One twin did get his degree while the other dropped out due to health and other issues.
We are having a similar experience and it is difficult. I would think that on paper, a boy and girl with good grades and test scores (99% for each) and high-level extracurriculars would end up with similar results. But instead, at one school the boy was offered full-tuition and the girl was offered much less. At another, the boy was offered honors college and the girl was not. At another, the boy was invited for a scholarship weekend and admitted early and the girl was not. It has been difficult emotionally for the girl in my house and I cannot see why given that the performance has been quite similar.
Unfortunately nothing tops the institutional mission (and we will never know what the mission is from year to year).
In addition, gender balancing is real. I remember that article that Jennifer Delahunty Britz who at the time was the dean of admissions and financial aid at Kenyon College about gender balancing and sometimes high performing young women get denied admission for the sake of admitting more young men.
for schools that select by major, young women can be admitted at higher rates than men.
Were these colleges that enroll more women than men?
Were these colleges that admit by major or division, and did the female student apply to the typically more overloaded major (like computer science) while the male student applied to the typically less overloaded major (like history)?
I had B-G twins applying to some of the same schools back in 2014. No rhyme nor reason sometimes for the different results. There were schools where both were accepted, but she got more FA/grants (his stats were higher). And there was the school he got into but she didn’t. Makes the whole process doubly difficult. The consolation prize is two at once for four full years = lower EFC for families caught in the middle. All I can say is it does work out. They went to different schools ultimately btw.
@ucbalumnus No especially popular major for either kid and some of the schools have been evenly balanced for genders and some have had higher female enrollments. @4Gulls – good to look past this eventually. The EFC is still too high, even if split! It would be easier if the results were skewed one direction and were just random. But they are skewed and that has been painful and also somewhat hard to figure out why. I keep thinking that the school that offers the girl more than the boy will get a fabulous student.
Are their EFCs close? If not, does the one with the higher EFC have more assets or a high income in the tax year? If that still doesn’t explain it, an error was probably made.
I had two enter the same year and one had an EFC maybe $100 more than her sister because of a savings account. In the long run, it didn’t matter.
“I think that would somehow seem ungrateful” It is not personal. The staff at the college are not making personal decisions. It’s all business. Call the schools for goodness sake!
Are you saying the same college gave one more fin aid (separate from merit) than the other? If not, it all depends on each college’s policies.
If this is the same college, if they are Meet Full Need, then they should have received roughly equal grants (assuming no large inequity in their own assets.) Yes, you’d want to see if he made a mistake. You can start with your own copies of his fin aid paperwork, line it up agains hers. (This is one resaon some of us don’t leave FA paperwork to the teens.)