@BrooklynRye
Great info here that you have provided. We too have a rising JR. at Columbia (football/civil engineering) and an entering freshman at State Flagship. Don’t expect any aid from State but Columbia told us 2 years ago that when she enters college, they would take our EFC and split it evenly for each kid. Based on that, we are really hoping or 20,000 k in grants will rise to at least 40-45 in grants this year. Have not heard back yet from them. It will be interesting. What sport is your S playing?
When I did online NPC I got more like 80% of EFC after adding a 2nd student into the picture.
Not sure where the 60% came from though that seems much more fair than 80%. I was hoping
my NPC experience was incorrect.
@dansmoaustin - Glad you are having (hopefully) a like experience with CU financial aid. Our son is a fencer. Funny, I was down in Charlottesville picking up D1 at UVA. Saw all of the baby blue CU shirts floating around the hotel. Turns out CU Tennis was competing in the pre-Sweet 16 rounds of the NCAA Championships in Charlottesville! Talked to a few of the players. When I told them S1 is a fencer, they all mock-bowed down. 2 consecutive Ivy League and NCAA Champions has its privileges… =D>
@blevine - Have not always found exact equivalency among a school’s NPC, the federal EFC, and the schools internal EFC. In our personal experience, different schools allocate different, sometimes uneven, percentages among multiple children in college. Some advise that it depends on the pool of money available for aid with each family’s demonstrated need obtaining aid only a pro rata basis. I guess the devil is in the details…
@blevine if I understood some of the comments up thread it may be because the school’s NPC you ran has their own ‘institutional’ EFC calculation. Not the same calculation as FAFSA EFC.
ETA Cross-posted with Brooklyn, who had a better answer.
@BrooklynRye I sent you a PM.
@BrooklynRye Yes…The Fencing team is fantastic. Football…well its a work in progress but they are on the upswing. It’s been an interesting experience. Basically a 30 hour a week job on top of a rigorous curriculum. But he likes his teammates and coaches. My DD got into UVA this year but the FA was just loans and it did not compare academically to the State school, but she loved the campus and people. She also got into ND, and the FA was better than UVA’s but my husband’s analysis put ND at costing double the net price (over 4 years) of Columbia. Just couldn’t reconcile that fact since she will most like be in school for 2-4 more years for grad school.
@dansmoaustin - My son is a bit nervous about balancing athletics and academics. Any advice will be much appreciated.
I actually think the athletic commitment keeps my daughter organized and on track. She plays a spring sport so the fall routine takes about 20 hours per week with morning lifting and afternoon practice. In the spring, it is more time, probably 30 hours, but she enjoys it and we really do consider her athletic scholarship her ‘work study’ job (she does not work during the school year). They only had one weekend trip this spring and all other games were within a 3 hour drive so no missed classes for those. We considered that she’d have less travel when picking her school (in Florida, so other teams travel to play us. This year she had 17 games total, 2 OOS, 4 in Florida and the rest at home. It’s great to be the home team.
Athletes also get the benefit of registering first, so she gets the best choice of classes and lab times Once there was an issue with a lab and the only section open was right during practice. She was very upset and didn’t know what to do. I told her to just sign up for it and tell the coach she’d have to miss practice. Well, an hour later a spot opened up in the other lab section she needed. A miracle I tell you. Coach driven miracle.
She grumbles a little that she misses parties and weekend trips to the beach or concerts, but I know she doesn’t really mind. She’s young, so would not be able to be out in bars anyway, and doesn’t really want to be out just drinking. Most of her friends are teammates so under the same rules.
She would be working out 10+ hours per week anyway, so an extra 10 is not really an issue. The money she gets is much more than if she worked at $10/hr for 10 or 20 hours per week.
K1 is in 2nd year college receiving full tuition merit scholarship; he is also receive outside merit scholarships covering most of R$B. When K2 enters college in 2017, will colleges consider us as having two kids in college even with K1’s merit scholarships?
@beardolls - I think you are safe on the FAFSA, but if K2’s school requires a CSS, I believe that form asks if you are receiving scholarship or other funding for K1’s school. It certainly asks for the annual COA for K1’s school.
@twoinanddone - Sounds as if your daughter has found a wonderful balance in the Sunshine State. Fencing, particularly in NYC, is very different. Practice/conditioning is only 6-8 hours per week. However, most top fencers continue to train with their private coaches. So S1 will train at least 4, maybe 5 days a week for several hours a day at his fencing club. The NCAA schedule has tournaments over extended weekends from roughly October through March. On top of this there is the USA Fencing National tournaments. There are about 6 extended weekend National tournaments during the year, running from October through April. Then there are the international tournaments. There will be as many as 7-10 of these depending on which tournaments are designated and S1’s success rate. All of this topped off with the World Championships which can mean another week away from school in April. While this is not the “norm” for the typical fencer, those few top fencers at each school will all at least give it a try. The attrition rate is very high and most will fall out of international and even national competition by the end of their sophomore year. THe lone survivors are those that can successfully compete at the Senior level with dreams of an Olympic team. Long haul!!
@BrooklynRye, thanks for your reply; I thought that might be the case. Unfortunately, K2 will be applying to CSS schools.
I recall reading above thread someone mentioned Carnegie Mellon doesn’t ask for K1 COA? I will need to look into it. Does any know any other schools like that?
Foe schools that use Profile, it depends on how each individual school wants to handle it. Profile asks about siblings and their school costs, plus how much siblings are receiving in scholarships, grants or gift aid.
Thanks, @BelknapPoint.