Yes, schools can and often do reduce your financial aid package after freshman year. They usually have some policy of students contributing more to their own education each year. Even selective colleges do have this philosophy in place. They expect students work during the summer, the school year and contribute more. Direct loan amounts are increased a bit each year to support this policy.
A lot of things can happen to reduce aid that people think are terribly unfair. Like Dad takes on an extra job, mom goes back to work, a retirement windfall. A sibling in college graduates or drops out or goes part time or transfers. Because increasing income can also increase the percent of it assessed towards the EFC, the results can be significant. Parents get an income allowance and then are hit at 22-46(?) % of income. So each marginal increase gets hit really hard. That the income also gets hit by marginal income tax as well as social security can mean that the hits can leave that new income with little or no money in pocket.
Sometimes the student gets a windfall in the summer, a high paying internship, gift from s relative, something innocent sounding that ratchets up that EFC terribly. When it comes to PROFILE, because they can have their own quirky rules, a student can fall into that quagmire. That it takes time sometimes for that affect to hit, since income and FAFSa are two years off, the connection is often lost or forgotten. That happens to parents too, they sometimes dont remember what years Of income are used for what school years of aid.
Friends of ours inherited money one year, which was going to increase EFC by 6% of value of those assets. Except they sold a property and yes, that was income which got hit as lot harder, and then insult upon injury, included in the assets and hit again!
A combination of factors can really cause financial problems.
IMO, financial aid officers, and offices are terribly run and insensitive to the havoc and grief they create. Not all, I’m sure there are some that give more personal attention than the ones Ive encountered but it has amazed me as to how terrible these offices are at colleges that are magnificent otherwise. There is a lot if improvement that could be mDe in this department.
I think those schools that are getting the rep and rap for front loading and pulling the aid carpet out from under students need to revamp their practices. Any stuff t whose financial aid is going down below a certain point should be given an explanation for the decrease, and the parent as well after student release. Everyone should understand EXACTLY why the decrease occurred.
Blanket statements like aid won’t increase if income stays about the same should be avoided. Sale of a house, a sibling out of college, all sorts of things can change the financial aid picture along with a change in the amount an upper classman would be expected to contribute vs a freshman. Stuff happen all of the time that can trigger an increase in EFC that doesn’t occur to families.
It is unethical IMO for a college to drop aid beyond a few thousand in increased responsibility on part of the student unless an event occurs that warrants it. Yes, if you get a pension or other distribution , you can get zinged. Sometimes it doesn’t even have to be a taxable event—PROFILE schools have their own rules. Gifts to the kid can get hit. I know s kid who got hit because non custodial dad paid tuition one year—yeah, that increases kids EFC A LOT—them’s The rules.
But yes, if the FAFSA or PROFILE numbers go up 60%, it is not only ethical for the costs to go up correspondingly, they should.
This is not an admonishment or accusation towards ANYONE who might have been treated unfairly by a college financial aid office. I have no doubt it happens , given what I’ve seen in the poor caliber of financial aid people. However,!oftentimes there is a valid reason. Unfair, but valid and covered in the rules of financial aid.