<p>I am interested in knowing the experience of parents who have two students in college at once. Our children are at two different ivy league schools. Have you had any experiences negotiating financial aid at different schools that might be helpful? Thanks.</p>
<p>Nope, none, sorry. I did run my FAFSA numbers with two in college, and it looks to be 10% more than having one in college. Since my son may very well attend the school his sister attends, I'm hoping they will be merciful. They meet 100% of need as determined by FAFSA/Profile, and will limit DS's loans to $14525. for the 4 years. I wasn't planning to "negotiate", although i guess I'll be talking to them if the fA package isn't manageable.</p>
<p>My personal experience is that colleges will negotiate in the sense that they will consider allowable expenses that don't show up on the Profile or FAFSA, such as big medical bills, lower salary, etc. As far as two in college, as noted it does not at all double the cost, in fact if the EFC is 20k, in theory each school will expect 10k per child.
If one school did not meet need - so they bill you 20k ( 10 EFC and 10k un-met need) perhaps the other school would consider that when doing FA for the other child.
The opposite - 10k EFC for each kid, but one gets full ride-would the non-ride school ask for the 20k? hmmm.
If your EFC is more than the costs of both schools together I don't think they'd care that you have two in school instead of one.</p>