Twins taken into account for financial aid? Early decision and financial aid?

Paying for College
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<p>My girls aren't graduating until next 2015, but as we are revving up to look at schools I'm terrified about cost. We have a decent income, but almost no assets(long story). When we fill out the FAFSA, the cost for another college-going child isn't going to be listed as an expense. DO they take into account the fact that your are going to be paying double college tuition? It would be easy if they went to the same school, but they very likely will not.On top of it all, my husband has cancer and honestly may not make it to the end of their college years and he is our main wage earner (although I work full time as well). Is there hope or should I limit our visits to cheaper schools? They are both excellent students.</p>

<p>Also, if you apply early decision and are accepted, when do you receive financial aid information? I realize that you are committed to going to that school - but what if you honestly can't afford it after you receive the aid package? Are we better off having the girls apply to everything regular admission so the financial aid packages arrive at the same time? Sorry - I'm new to all this!</p>

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<p>Use the net price calculators for the schools they are interested in (on their financial aid websites) instead of the FAFSA calculator. EFC doesn’t mean too much, it is the schools that are giving the aid and making the decisions. Most of them will ask how many kids you have in college for the upcoming year, and you just put “2”. Yes, they do usually give you a break when you have more than one student in college at once.</p>

<p>Having higher income and lower assets isn’t a great place to be in for FA. The FA calculations weight income more heavily than assets.</p>

<p>You can run the net price calculators with different assumptions – so you can run them with the assumption that your husband isn’t working or contributing. But you want to apply to schools that meet need if you can – they are more likely to adjust your aid if you have a change in your circumstances.</p>

<p>If you get the information requested by the financial aid office in promptly (last year’s tax returns, etc), then usually the financial aid package comes quite close to the acceptance decision. You do not have to decide whether to accept the ED offer or not until you have a change to review the FA package, so even if they have a deadline, you can get an extension if the FA package isn’t in your hands. This assume you in good faith worked hard to get all materials to them on time for the FA evaluation, of course. But insufficient financial aid is the one legitimate reason that allows you to get out of an ED commitment. But if your kids do apply someplace ED, have them keep working on their applications to other schools – it is tough if the FA package is not sufficient, and they haven’t submitted other apps or gotten them all ready to go. </p>

<p>The advantage of regular decision is that you can compare offers across colleges. Sometimes you can ask one college to review their FA offer in light of the better cost of attendance at a comparable or better institution.</p>

<p>You are going to want to look hard for affordable schools for their list that they would want to attend in addition to any reaches where you are not sure. Review your in-state options or any states with reciprocity. If they have high stats, there are some schools that give large automatic scholarships for that (U of Alabama is one such school).</p>

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<p>First, if finances are a serious consideration, I would suggest you think long and hard about applying early decision. When you apply ED, you do get a financial aid award in time to make your matriculation decision. BUT, the intent of ED is that you know the costs, and plan to attend if accepted. If the school does NOT guarantee to meet full need, applying ED will likely not net you more aid than a regular decision application. Plus, you will have ON!Y that ONE ED acceptance and aid on which to make your enrollment decision. The ED offer could be the best your kid will receive…but it could also be the WORST. You won’t be able to compare offers because you will on,y have the ED offer.</p>

<p>If your girls apply regular decision, they have the ability to compare financial aid and net costs to you from more than one acceptance. Even with schools that meet full need for all, there can be thousands of dollars in variation of financial aid awards.</p>

<p>Re: the FAFSA. You will be indicating that you will have TWO students in college for,the 2015-2016 school year on each daughter’s FAFSA form, and the Profile as well if required by the colleges. The formula computing your family contribution for each kiddo will be based on having two in college. I will use round numbers for an example. If your EFC for one student would have been $80,000 for the year, this $80,000 will be divided in half…well…about half…so the EFC for each would be in the $40,000 a year range. </p>

<p>You will be asked to verify each daughter’s college enrollment for,the other’s college.</p>

<p>Re: your husband. I’m sorry for your husband’s illness. If he is well and working now, then make an attempt to conserve money and save.</p>

<p>Another thing to do…look on the front page of this financial aid section. There is a thread called “automatic full tuition and full ride scholarships”. If your girls are competitive for top schools, it is very likely they could garner merit aid at one of the schools listed on that thread. </p>

<p>ETA…there is a Net Price Calculator on every college website. I would strongly suggest you put your financial information into the NPCs for each school your girls consider. This will give you at least a ballpark of what your net costs will be for the year.</p>

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<p>Have you tried the FAFSA4caster yet? Each student would indicate that there will be two students in college during her freshman year, and the EFC calculation for each daughter would be adjusted accordingly.</p>

<p>You should also try the Net Price Calculators available on each college website for a projected financial aid package, especially for colleges that they are considering for ED applications. Be aware that colleges handle different factors like home equity differently. Also note the NPC numbers are not binding, and are most accurate for very simple financial circumstances.</p>

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<p><<<<
When we fill out the FAFSA, the cost for another college-going child isn’t going to be listed as an expense.
<<<</p>

<p>?</p>

<p>Yes the other child is considered… It asks how many will be in college…you will put two kids.</p>

<p>Your D’s should apply to colleges where they will get large merit for their stats.</p>

<p>FAFSA only schools dont meet need so even with a split EFC, you may not actually see any aid.</p>

<p>I’m sorry to hear about your H, but again, FAFSA only schools usually dont have a lot of money to give so even with serious issues, the school may have an empty wallet and not give you anything.</p>

<p>At a minimum, have each girl apply to a couple of schools where FOR SURE they will get HUGE merit for their stats.</p>

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<p>Thank you, everyone. Now to figure out who will give merit in our area - the NorthEast is mighty competitive!</p>

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<p>Is there some reason why your daughters need to go to college in the northeast?</p>

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<p>Agree with thumper1… the schools that give the biggest merit mostly aren’t in the northeast. They may have to follow the money.</p>

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<p>OP,
If you want / need merit $$ for your D’s you need to be willing to cast a much WIDER net.<br>
Dont make the mistake of limiting yourself to the NE.
There are far more fine colleges outside of NE that offer Merit $$. </p>

<p>Here are a few links from CC’s financial aid forum. Skip to the last page of this first link for a comprehensive list [ as of Oct 2013] of colleges that offer Merit $</p>

<p><a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #286 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-p20.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>We live in the NE and neither girl wants to go that far from home. One has a pretty focused idea of what she wants to do - obsessed with going to school in NYC but trying to talk her out of it (which only fuels the fire, of course), the other wants and really needs a small liberal arts environment. </p>

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<p>There are TONS of very fine LACs in the Midwest, and PA. Many offer great merit aid to high achieving applicants.</p>

<p>NYC is a very costly place to attend college…and that doesn’t even consider the cost of the COLLEGE. </p>

<p>Here is my suggestion. You parents need to come up with a bottom line cost that you are able and willing to pay for each of your girls annually for college. They need to work within those financial parameters. Of course they can apply to a variety of schools. But if you really can’t afford to spend more than a certain amount, you need to be clear with your girls about that amount…and make it clear to them that they will need to decline ALL offers that do not have sufficient money to pay the bills in their financial aid packages. Then stick to your guns.</p>

<p>The key will be to apply to a range of schools.</p>

<p>Also, do not dismiss the public universities in your home state. </p>

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<p>“obsessed with going to school in NYC”
that is like being “obsessed” with going to Stanford, or Yale etc.
Its not a [financially] realistic goal for your D.
NOW IS the time to have the “money talk” with both Ds’
and get them to start being realistic about what IS and what IS NOT financially possible for them.
You dont want them applying next year to colleges that they CANT afford go to.
The result might be unnecessary heartbreak and anguish. </p>

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<p>Many schools have early deadlines if you want to be considered for all scholarships. If you decide to go the ED route, make sure that you also get the other applications finished and submitted if that is the case. If you wait until the ED decision comes out, you will miss some of these deadlines. </p>

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<p>Well, make sure you know what the scholarship deadlines are AND that the applications are ready to go by those dates or the due dates if no scholarship deadline. There is no reason to incur the cost of applying if there is a fee if unless there is an early deadline for scholarships.</p>

<p>@Menloparkmom is absolutely right with her advice to have the money talk now. Given your situation, the first step for any school they are interested in should be running the net price calculator and figuring out if it fits within your financial parameters.</p>

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<p>Look at some of the Catholic schools. Manhattan College, Fordham, both are in NYC and give out merit money. So does Hofstra, Wagner and some like schools. </p>

<p>You have to figure what you are going to be able to pay and then run some NPCs on the schools in mind and see which schools look affordable. </p>

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<p>The NE usually isn’t the place to find big merit. You may find “some merit’” but it would get applied to “need” and may not do much for you.</p>

<p>You need to be firm and clear to your Ds about how much you’ll spend and be clear that you wont co-sign loans.</p>

<p>When you use the NPCs on the websites be aware that merit money will not get applied to your EFC unless the merit is so HUGE that it covers all of need and then cuts into efc.</p>

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<p>Note that LACs need not be super-expensive.</p>

<p>Several of the schools listed at <a href=“Member Institutions”>http://www.coplac.org/members/&lt;/a&gt; have relatively low list prices, even for out-of-state students. Examples include Truman State, University of Minnesota - Morris, UNC - Asheville, SUNY - Geneseo, Sonoma State. CT, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY each have one for in-state students looking for in-state discounted tuition. (Of course, suitability in other aspects like academic offerings needs to be checked.)</p>

<p>You figure out your actual limit of what you can spend on each daughter, and communicate that to them. Then run net price calculators on colleges of interest to see if need-based financial aid will be enough. If not, then they need to look for schools with large-enough merit scholarships, like the examples in these threads:
<a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;

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<p>You mention Early Decision…</p>

<p>Unless a person has no money concerns or is so poor (low income, no assets, no NCP, no business), then applying ED is very risky since each twin wont be able to compare packages. </p>

<p>What could happen is this…an ED twin could get into a desired school and receive a crappy pkg, then what? </p>

<p>If you do apply ED, then also have your twins apply to schools that give ASSURED very large merit awards for their stats (apply to these early as well because merit deadlines are early), then when you get the ED pkgs you’ll at least be able to compare that to the cost of the big merit school.</p>

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<p>I’m also thinking that because their father is ill, the twins may want to stay within easy reach. </p>

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<p>Just got back from a big college visit trip. Cnp55, you are right - they don’t want to go terribly far due to their father’s health. We are staying in New England for certain (oh, lucky us - land of costly schools), and one twin in particular really wants (and needs) the small liberal arts environment. The other is obsessed with art school, but is slowly seeing that a liberal arts option with an art/psychology double major might serve her well. We have more visits to make, but financial packages are going to be a big part of decision making, that’s for certain.</p>