S1 is a sophomore at RPI. When he was admitted, he was our only child in college and our EFC was 40K+. Thus, while he got some merit aid, he did not qualify for any need-based aid (which of course was fair).
But for 2016-17, we’ll have 2 kids in college. Thus, our EFC for S1 according to the FAFSA had dropped to 23K. Accordingly, even with merit aid, S1 still has financial need of about 20K. While I imagined that RPI would expect a good chunk of that to be covered by loans, I thought they would at least give him some need-based aid.
Instead, when I emailed, I got an email back whose overall tone was “don’t hold your breadth,” and the key line of which read: “Typically a student’s financial aid award doesn’t change from their original award unless there is a drastic change in circumstances with the family.”
How can such a substantial drop in EFC not be considered a sufficient change to qualify a current student for need-based aid? Any advice on how to approach the FA office at RPI about this?
RPI is a CSS school correct? CSS schools dont really care if your FAFSA EFC split. They don’t use your FAFSA EFC to determine Institutional Aid.
RPI doesn’t promise to meet need, is that correct?
The “dramatic change” that RPI is talking about usually means an unanticipated change…like death of the primary breadwinner, or loss of job and no new job. They may feel that the fact that a 2nd child will be going to college was not an unanticipated change.
Since this is a school that doesn’t meet need, it’s not unusual for such a school not to give more after frosh year. I know that this is shocking.
Another dad posted awhile back and said that he never would have allowed his oldest D to go to one particular school if he had known that she wouldn’t get financial aid for her sophomore year when her younger brother began college.
You can approach the school with the position that you knew that the EFC would drop when the 2nd child began college, so you naturally believed that more aid would be forthcoming. If you ran the NPC when your child was a high school senior and put in 2 in college to get an idea of aid, then that response would have been sadly misleading since those results would only apply to those who have 2 in college, right at the bat.
You really don’t have much/any leverage, and the school knows that. Unless you have your child leave at this point (not likely desirable), the school may be thinking that you’ll either suck it up and pay…or borrow.
The issue is…RPI does not guarantee to meet full need. So just because your FAFSA EFC is lower…RPI doesn’t guarantee to make up the difference.
Our first kiddo went to BU. He also had. Nice merit award. Our EFC with him alone exceeded th cost of attendance…which was Bout $40,000 a year at the time. When his sister was a freshman, his FAFSA EFC dropped to $22,000. He got $250 in additional merit aid…and that was it.
Another question might be that if the EFC had been $23k as a freshman, would there have been any need based aid? At a lot of schools, the answer is no, they expect you to take out loans.
Some schools that give out merit aid just don’t give much in need based aid.
Colleges aren’t charities. They have expenses and the amount of aid they give out has to take those expenses into consideration. I doubt they can afford to give discounts to every student who has a younger sibling start college. That would be a pretty sizable loss of income from what they took in for those students as freshmen.
Subaru is not going to sell my husband a new car for a lower price just because I still have payments on my Hyundai.
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Some schools that give out merit aid just don’t give much in need based aid.
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This is very true. Especially at schools that don’t meet need.
Some schools would give a student the SAME pkg if he had a sibling in college when he was an incoming frosh or not.
Try this…run RPI’s NPC as an incoming freshman and indicate two in college… what are the results?
I know that you’re trying to come up with a strategy to convince RPI to give more money, but it appears that RPI focuses its best pkgs for incoming freshmen to protect yield. They already have your son. They’re likely confident that you’ll either pay out of savings or take a Plus loan rather than have your child leave the school. In fact, I suspect they’re betting on that.
In their heads, they already know how much aid is going to returning students based on what they got freshmen year. So, the remaining budget is for incoming freshmen and maybe a few students who have a tragic loss (like death of the primary breadwinner).
That said, then YOUR STRATEGY might have to include a polite but strong message that your child will have to leave the school if no more aid is given. You can tell them that it will no longer be affordable when you have two in college. You had allowed your son to enroll because you had assumed that there would be more aid forthcoming when the 2nd child started. That might convince them to give more just to protect their retaining numbers. If you go that route, then be very polite. And, you would likely need to talk to the director, not just some person who answers the phone or a low level FA officer.
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Subaru is not going to sell my husband a new car for a lower price just because I still have payments on my Hyundai.
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Very true. However, the FAFSA EFC gives most everyone the (wrong) impression that once you have others in college, you’ll get more aid. At probably 90+% of colleges, there will not be more aid unless the split EFC now qualifies the family for some or more Pell.
Another misleading factor is that the top schools do give more aid when there’s a sibling in school, but that’s because they have a very large endowment. The fact that those schools do automatically give more aid, it can confuse families when they are choosing other schools.
I’m reminded of the dad who posted a couple of years ago at this same time of year. He had an EFC of about $45k when his older DD went to an OOS public, which had a cost of about the EFC. He wrongly assumed that when his son started college the following year, that his $20k per year EFC for each child would mean that the OOS public would given him grants for both kids. Sadly, not a dollar. He was facing paying full freight (again) for his DD, but also paying full freight for his son who wanted to attend the same school.
He was then between a rock and a hard place. He didn’t want to break his DD’s heart by telling her that she couldn’t return for soph year, but he also didn’t want to have to tell his son that he couldn’t attend and might have to commute to a local public. The dad never posted his decision. I suspect that he ended up taking out Plus Loans to kick the problem down the road.
I’m sure many families face this every year, which may help explain the growing debt loan for parents paying for their kids’ college costs.
This makes no sense. Another kid in college IS a drastic change in the circumstances with the family. You need to TALK to the financial aid director and not a lackey who responds to email. Call the office and insist. Be nice.
When our second kiddo went to college, we also thought our family situation changed drastically. Boston University only requires a Profile in years after freshman if your situation changes. So we completed it. Our family contribution per FAFSA went from $44,000 a year to $22,000 a year.
But our income and assets actually had remained about the same…no loss of job, no medical exoenses, no house burning down without insurance, etc. I think THIS is the type of circumstance they were looking for because BU, like RPI, does NOT guarantee to meet full need.
So for,schools that do NOT guarantee to meet full need…like RPI and BU and NYU…and the other vast majority of colleges…having a second child in college is NOT a shoe in for increased need based aid…or merit aid. The schools do not guarantee to meet full need…and the don’t.
But they will usually consider drastic financial changes.
Remember…sending that second kid to college is a choice. I know, I know…but really, it is.
^no, it’s not.
Universities that don’t meet need don’t consider sending a second child to college “a choice”.
Universities that don’t meet need do not consider other siblings. Period. They don’t meet need so your need doesn’t matter to them.
What matters to them is what the student, your child, brings to the college. What the other child’s doing is of no concern to them since your family’s resources were never the primary consideration when they offered FA.
I agree the only way to make them look through it is 1° if you’re nice about it 2° clear that your child can’t stay enrolled at that level of funding. (But you have to be ready to do what you say so tell your child ahead of time that you’re trying this gambit on his behalf. If you really can’t afford it, your child may have to take an unplanned “gap year” to work, with all legal “leave of absence” papers filled so that he can return easily, There’s no saying whether the following year the university will up the package though but at least your child will have $5,500 from a job that can’t really be used against his financial need award but still can help with fees.)
I said…I know…in my family it was not a “choice” to send either kid to college. We expected them to go to cllege…not a choice in this house.
But from the college point of view…colleges that do NOT meet full need…this isn’t their issue. Unfortunately, the schools that don’t meet full need are under no obligation to adjust your need based aid because a second kid is attending college.
BUT…it is possible that this student might be eligible for additional federally funded need based aid…depending on what the EFC actually IS with two in college. And that could help this student.
At schools that don’t meet need, this really applies…
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Universities that don't meet need do not consider other siblings. Period. They don't meet need so your need doesn't matter to them.
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What matters to them is what the student, your child, brings to the college. What the other child’s doing is of no concern to them since your family’s resources were never the primary consideration when they offered FA.
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The exception would be if the second (or third child) in college drops the EFC into Pell Grant range.
These schools don’t consider a 2nd child going to college a change in circumstance that they will look at. They may not consider that second child’s education “a choice,” but they may look at it as a future expense that should have been no surprise to you.
@ClassicRockerDad <<< This makes no sense. Another kid in college IS a drastic change in the circumstances with the family. <<<
You may be used to dealing with top schools that meet need, or your EFC was too high even with 2 in college. Didn’t one of your kids attend an OOS public (like Wisconsin)? If your family income was low enough that the Wisconsin DD would have had her EFC drop to $15k per year for her sophomore year because younger sibling was going to be an incoming frosh, I doubt that UWisc would have then handed out grants for the DD’s returning year.
In the US, non-profit private colleges generally are 501(c)(3) organizations classified as public charities which are able to receive donations that individuals may deduct on form 1040 schedule A. http://www.aau.edu/workarea/downloadasset.aspx?id=14246
However, any charity must pay attention to its business and financial operations in order to avoid going bankrupt. Any charity may not be able to afford to be as generous as it may otherwise want to be to any given recipient, if it has insufficient financial resources to do so.
If you can actually afford $40,000 over two kids in college, perhaps the one at RPI should investigate transfer options to SUNYs (since their NY resident list price is not much more than half that), and the second one should look strongly at schools which cost SUNY price or lower.
We were previously told by 2 separate schools our EFC would be cut in half for Division 3 schools… In reality, our D2 costs came in very high.We are now completing year 2 paperwork for UND for our D1 who will be a sophomore.
We have not had an increase in income. Now D1 is aware if no increase from UND, and tuition increase of 3.7% she could have loans Senior year.
D2 will be a Frosh in the fall: The 2 schools that indicated EFC would be cut in half awarded loans and FA award of $800. Our costs for D2 are well over 20,000. We expected as much… and planned accordingly.
Unfortunately of the 7 schools applied to the D3 was her favorite. It isn’t so much that we can’t afford the school - it’s the fact that neither of the two schools cut the EFC in half after communicating they would several times during visits. The $800 award is better than nothing…however, it still makes me a bit peeved.
College’s are a business first and not a charity. @KKmama & ucbalumnus…I would agree. A family business decision will need to be made that may not be favorable to those empty promises. Now the coach wants to know will we still consider D3 with no athletic awards to offer. (let me think on that…we knew going in no awards D3) Ugh!
Profile schools typically do not cut the family contribution in half. Each student would pay 60% not 50% of their EFC.
The FAFSA EFC will be half…but really that doesn’t matter for Profile,Schools…unless it would make a student eligible for a Pell grant.
And for those division 3 schools…if the schools don’t meet full need for all, your aid may not reflect a large increase in aid when additional kids are in college.
I was under the impression that RPI can be generous with aid, but maybe not with a $40k EFC. So you paid close to full price with child 1. Now with child 2 if the EFC splits 60/60 that’s about $24k. Maybe still not low enough for need based aid from RPI. They probably have your net price figured much higher than FAFSA EFC.
So were you planning on spending 40k a year for first child and $20k a year for each child after the first year? I don’t think it works that way with schools that don’t meet full need.
So now you need to come up with at least $60-65k a year for two in college. What EFC does the second child have at their school and do they meet need?