DS22 has younger sibling DD24 who will be entering college when he enters his junior year. What does a “meet full need” school do in that situation? To put numbers to it, let’s say our EFC is $70K, so we get direct loan and a small grant from a full meet school (COA of $78K). Assuming our financial situation is basically the same and ignoring cost increases, we will need to split EFC between siblings at that point ($35K each). [Note, I know FAFSA is changing and EFC is going away but looking to hear how this situation is currently handled.]
Will a full meets school suddenly add $35K in grants? Anyone have a similar situation?
thanks
You can try the college’s net price calculator with 1 in college and 2 in college to see what the difference would be.
I think the Fafsa is changing (?) and I don’t know how profile schools will handle siblings in college at the same time. I would actually call the schools and ask.
My D attended a school that met need and our EFC was split about equally between my 2 kids.
Just remember that for Fafsa purposes, the dividing of the EFC when there are multiple college kids will end. This was supposed to start for the 2023-2024 academic year. If that happens, it remains to be seen how Profile schools will respond with regard to awarding their institutional aid with multiple siblings in college.
So…best advice…stay tuned.
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FAFSA used to split that $70k amongst the kids in college, but that is going away for high school class of 2023 I believe. So each college student would have an EFC of $70k instead of each having $35k.
I have three that will be in college at the same time when that rule takes effect. 
@kelsmom can comment. But there is a question whether this provision will actually happen with the 2023-2024 FAFSA…or not.
And NO one knows what private schools that meet full need and use the CSSProfile will be doing!
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Oh gosh, this is the first time I’ve heard of the FAFSA change and it would be disastrous for my family, since my sibling and I might be attending college at the same time for three years…
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@toasties at this point, this is for FAFSA only, and would only affect eligibility for the Pell Grant. And maybe institutional funding from schools that only use the FAFSA.
Really, how the colleges will deal with this change in terms of disbursing their own institutional aid is a big question mark!
Yes, I found this article too that says CSS still accounts for siblings, though the discount isn’t as big as the FAFSA used to do… I guess we better both look for schools that ask for CSS too! https://blog.massmutual.com/post/college-fafsa-changes-siblings
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In the OP’s scenario, splitting the EFC between 2 kids wouldn’t change the eligibility for a Pell grant (and most likely SEOG grant). If the EFC is $70k, no Pell grant. If the EFC is $35k, no Pell grant. Some schools may give grants for an EFC of $35k but not all do.
For Profile schools…the split was normally not 50/50. It was 60/60. Meaning each student family contribution was 60% of that single student. So…it would not be $35,000 each. It would be $42,000 each on a previous family contribution of 70,000.
But as I said upstream, it remains to be seen what Profile schools will do regarding awarding of need based aid. No one knows if the question about multiple kids in college at the same time will remain on the Profile….or not.
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I guess we can’t edit right now. For that $70,000 current family contribution…the split would not yield $35,000 for each of two student at schools using the Profile. It would be 60% which would be $42,000. But these two family contributions might not be identical because student income and assets might be different.
Ugh that’s horrible.
My understanding is that the FAFSA change has been put off until 2024-25. I have not seen anything from any Profile schools that definitively say that they won’t consider multiple children in school for purposes of awarding institutional aid … so I can’t say whether they will or won’t.
Why don’t you call the school’s financial aid office and ask? I have kind of the opposite situation. My younger son is starting next year. When we applied for fin aid the plan was for my older son to be back in school. Now that is up in the air. I called the office to see how this potential change will impact our aid. In my case, I’m hoping the impact will be minimal. I almost didn’t want to talk to them, as in maybe they don’t need to know. But I’m an honest person and also afraid it would come back to bite me.