Hello! Our high school senior was given an affordable package for our family for their freshman year based on having a sibling in college. Their financial aid package had expressed your family contribution may double next year. Has your family contribution doubled in your child’s sophomore year at Tufts once their sibling is no longer in college? 30,000 and 60,000 are very different. The sibling’s college doesn’t cost 30,000 a year.
I would run Tufts’ Net price calculator without the other one in college to see what the impact is (although the NPC is currently set for 2023-24, so you might bump up the costs for 2024-25). The NPC might not be accurate if parents are divorced, own real estate beyond a primary home or own a business…are any of those the case for you?
Thank you! We did that and it went up almost by double.
Well, if the NPC was accurate for you for first year with a sibling, I expect what you are seeing is accurate for the second year without the sibling in college. You can always call the FA office and work through the numbers with them.
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I strongly encourage you to call the financial aid office to ask.
For FAFSA purposes, the two kids in college thing will go away for the 2024-2025 academic year.
No one really knows what Profile schools will do with that.
BUT…it is very standard that once you have only ONE kid in college, your family contribution won’t be split between two, but will all be dedicated to the one remaining college kid. This isn’t new, and it’s not unique to Tufts.
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Clipped this from another thread. I understand that this change was made to negate the “benefit” received by families with kids closer in age, but it seems like it’s going to really screw (pardon my french) many, many families who relied upon the former FAFSA rules when accepting the offers their older kids received. Is there a thread on CC that discusses just this issue? Anyone have any additional info as to how/why the change was made and if there was any public or college input into this? And any chance it can be changed back? Also - do the schools have to follow this change? or can they simply take it into consideration in awarding more fin aid or merit aid? which begs the question what will happen to merit aid that might be diverted?
This is a bit off topic to this thread…so I’m responding once…and then hoping you will start your own thread @sflawyermom
This change is for the FAFSA only as of today. @kelsmom did start a thread with some of this information. I’ll let her chime in.
This is for NEED based aid, not merit aid. Also, colleges can do anything they want to do with regard to awarding their own institutional monies. The change will affect some for Pell eligibility, and possibly subsidized portions of the Direct Loan…and federal work study which are all federally funded need based aid.
@kelsmom can elaborate more.
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Yes, this change was part of the FAFSA Simplification Act that was passed by Congress. This link provides information about the rationale for the change: NASFAA | Removal of Number in College Yields More Equitable, Simple Application Process.
This is for federal aid, which is Pell, SEOG, Federal Work Study & Federal Direct Loans.
If colleges want to consider multiple students in college when awarding their own aid, they can … but I don’t know if any have stated their expected policy yet.
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The FAFSA change has nothing to do with OP’s situation because they will only have one kid in college next year, so it’s off topic for this thread.
No congress member has put forth a bill to make a change to the sibling FAFSA situation…which would be what is needed to be approved to change the law. There was ample time to comment before the Simplified FAFSA law was passed.
It is likely that CSS Profile schools will continue to give benefit for multiple kids in college at the same time, but no college has announced their intentions AFAIK. FAFSA only schools could also take into account the number of siblings in college if they want (the question will still be asked on FAFSA, just won’t be part of the SAI calculation) but as we know most FAFSA only schools don’t come close to meeting need/SAI.
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If their package stated it may double, may being the operative word, I would call and find out.
If paying double is outside your ability or desire and they can’t assure a similar amount, then you might need to move on from Tufts.
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THIS. Please read this. The OP will not have multiple students in college in year two for his second kid. That his costs will double…not a surprise. This is standard practice everywhere except the very small number of colleges that guarantee need based aid for all four years. Tufts isn’t one of those.
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Thanks for the info! And sorry to be off topic.
No worries, and I forgot to post this thread, where we can talk about all things FAFSA!
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But this will be the same at ANY CSS college. The only other options would be a) if student got significant renewable merit aid elsewhere, or b) in-state flagship.
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I didn’t say where they should go, but they would need to go somewhere within their budget. And if the budget is $30k and they got into Tufts, there are schools taking apps that likely get them there. But they are not the level of Tufts…but still fine.
In theory if they are paying $30k x 2, it would make sense they could afford $60k x 1.
But do they want to or should they - only they can answer.
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