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<p>I think you’re misinterpreting what’s being said. Let’s say your EFC for one kid would be $20K. If you have two kids going to college at the same time, you pay 60% of $20K ($12K) for each kid, which adds up to a total of $24K/year (120% of EFC) for 4 years, or a grand total of $96K. If instead you have 2 kids going to college sequentially, you pay 100% of EFC, or $20K per year, for each kid, for a total of $160K over 8 years–or 200% of a single EFC. By having them go simultaneously, you’re receiving a deep discount, 40% off. </p>
<p>You may get some small break in the EFC itself for having a child at home not attending college (i.e., your EFC is calculated on the basis of a family of 4 rather than a family of 3), but that’s a fairly trivial adjustment; they’re certainly not going to give you 40% off for that, even if, for example, you’re paying tuition at a private HS. And you get no break at all for having already sent a kid though college; at that point, the college grad is probably just deemed irrelevant for purposes of calculating the younger sibling’s EFC because it’s presumed they should be on their own (unless possibly they have a disability or medical condition that causes them to remain listed as their parents’ dependent).</p>
<p>So financially speaking, you’re much better off having two kids in college simultaneously, even though it might not feel that way as you struggle to put together two tuition payments. In principle, though, you could borrow against future earnings in the kids’ post-college years, or deplete other parental assets with time to rebuild them after the kids have completed college. But you’re certainly better off sending two kids through colleges for $96K than for $160K, however painful a squeeze it may be for those four years.</p>