<p>Looking at my Family report, there is the "Your Estimated Family Contribution" section.
There, it says "Parent Contribution for all students" and gives a number. In this case, it is roughly half the cost of one year of boarding school. Plus the disclaimer that the results are for day students, add $1700 per student for bs.</p>
<p>Here is my question: I have 3 kids going to tuition charging schools next year. BS is the highest followed by two lesser ones. Those are roughly half the cost of bs. So how do I interpret the efc? Divide by 3?</p>
<p>It can't be per student as the parent contribution number is, in two cases, higher than the reported tuition.</p>
<p>^^I am lost. So suppose you’ll pay full tuition for your two kids who are attending the less costly schools, and pay the EFC to the BS the other kid is attending, aren’t you still just paying your EFC? Or, if you could split EFC differently as you expect, that would mean - in a “perfect” world, you pay less for the two less costly schools and receive less aid from the expensive one, but you’d still end up paying your total EFC. Right? Or did I totally miss your point?</p>
<p>No wonder you’re lost with my explanation. Let me try again. I think I can boil it down to one question.</p>
<p>Is the efc number what they expect us to contribute, in total, for all three kids? </p>
<p>It says “parent contribution for all students” next to that number and the report acknowledges that we have three kids in tuition charging schools.</p>
<p>What you can do is quickly pull it together (Turbotax or other) and do the best you can. They’ll need the final forms after wards anyway. They don’t just look at income, they look at assets and deductions as well.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. I thought it wouldn’t affect that much and they could make a decision based on W-2 2010. I have heard FA will be given as a preliminary until 2010 tax is completed. Anyway, I plan to complete 2010 tax return by the end of this week and upload to SSS this weekend. I will inform school by e-mail as well as SSS.</p>
<p>Someone just asked me a question by PM - you don’t have to have filed the forms with the IRS when you send it to the schools - just assemble the rough draft. If you are accepted they’ll ask for a copy of the final forms later so they can finalize stuff.</p>
<p>'Cuz let’s face it - most people aren’t ready to file in February - to many straggling W-2s and 1099’s coming in.</p>
<p>While I think the schools definitely take into account you have three kids attending tuition charging schools, how they decide to “split” the EFC could vary. In fact, my D’s school this year decided to charge me my full EFC even though I will have another child in a tuition charging school this year (hopefully, if she is accepted). I will be paying double what I paid for the 2010-2011 school year. I called and discussed it with the school and told them it will make paying tuition for my other child very difficult, but they were unwilling to adjust her FA award.</p>
<p>Despite my efc, my daughter’s school basically gave us the same as last year, with a slight increase to cover the slight hike in tuition. Had they followed the efc to the letter, we would have received significantly more. But they have been very generous so we’re still very happy with the offer.
zp</p>