<p>Say I don’t qualify for aid next year, but then the next three years I will have a sibling in college. Will my family pay half of the costs for college for those next three years?</p>
<p>It is my understanding that the family’s portion of the EFC is cut in half but the students’ portion is not. So if you have assets and income, some portion of the total will be added to the family portion. Remember, also, that this just applies to the EFC for FAFSA purposes. Colleges that use the CSS Profile can do whatever they want with the family’s and students’ income and assets. Finally, the fact that the family’s EFC is cut in half does not necessarily mean that the family’s college costs will automatically be cut in half.</p>
<p>Also remember that most colleges do not meet full need (i.e. they gap students) so that even if your EFC is lower with 2 in college, neither student may get “full” financial aid.</p>
<p>In our case, (this is first year with two filling out fafsa) it was not half of last years EFC for each kid, although lower for older that it was prior…and my older got work study option for the first time.</p>
<p>The parts of the FAFSA EFC generated by parent income will be divided equally between the # of students in school. Any part generated by a student’s own income/assets stays with that student. However all the EFC does is determine eligibility for certain types of aid. Halving the EFC does not necessarily mean you will just pay that as most schools do not promise to meet full need.</p>
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Probably not, unless you are at a school where your EFC will be half the cost of the college and it is a school that promises to meet full need without loans. Very few schools promise to meet full need without loans. Many do not promise to meet full need at all.</p>
<p>Federal grant money requires a very low EFC (around 5270 ish currently for any Pell). With an EFC over that all you will get for federal money is loans and possibly WS. Institutional aid from the school will depend on whether they offer need based aid from their own funds (many schools do not). If they do offer institutional aid then what you get will depend on their policies as far as meeting full need or not, with or without loans etc.</p>
<p>From what I have read on CC, schools that require CSS often do not reduce the expected family contribution by 50% when there is a 2nd student in school.</p>
<p>*Say I don’t qualify for aid next year, but then the next three years I will have a sibling in college. Will my family pay half of the costs for college for those next three years? *</p>
<p>Probably not for a variety of reasons…</p>
<p>1) Say your EFC is $80k, and your parents are paying $40k for you to go to college. then if your sibling goes to another school that costs $40k, then your parents will have to pay $80k for both of you.</p>
<p>2) Most schools don’t meet need, so once your EFC is beyond fed/state grants, you may not get much aid anyway.</p>
<p>3) If one or both of you go to a CSS Profile school that “meets need,” then it’s also impossible to know how much your family would be expected to pay since their formulas are unique…and they don’t provide a “EFC”. For instance, you may not qualify for aid while attending a CSS school that costs $55k. So, your family has to pay the full $55k. But, it’s possible that with 2 in school, the school may say that your family’s income/assets are high enough that they have to pay full freight for both…or maybe near full-freight for both.</p>
<p>to give you an extreme example…</p>
<p>If Bill Gates first child goes to Harvard and he’s told that he has to pay $60k for his child to go there, then that doesn’t mean that if his second child goes there the following year that he’ll only have to pay $30k for each.</p>
<p>To give you a less extreme example…my sister had to pay $60k for her son to go to Vandy. The second year her son went to Tufts. She has to pay full freight for both kids…even tho she’s not a “Bill Gates” in any shape or fashion.</p>
<p>The school I am considering is USC, their financial need is pretty good so I heard.</p>
<p>I doubt my family’s EFC is that high, it is only high enough to just not qualify for need.</p>
<p>What is your FAFSA EFC?</p>
<p>Do you have home equity?</p>
<p>Will your sibling likely go to a school like USC?</p>
<p>that said…CSS Profile schools don’t split family contribution 50/50…more like 60/60.</p>
<p>Doesn’t even matter if you’re talking about 1 kid with efc=0, the answer is that it depends on the school and whether the school meets need. As we know, most schools do not.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth-- our D had her need met 100% first two years strictly through grants. When S started, her need was still met, but the mix turned to grants and now included loans and work study-- hardly a win since she was already using the unsubsidized loans previously to reduce the parental contribution (everyone can have unsubsidized loans). Worse yet, when she leaves, S’s EFC will double and I expect that it will now add loans and work study to his package.</p>
<p>Our EFC is high 30s. So this year each kid got an EFC close to 20K and that simply meant more loans for both of them – we didn’t gain much at all as a result of having a second one start school.</p>
<p>That is a common scenerio. How they meet the EFC can change when your EFC changes.
I was lucky last year to have 1 of the 2 colleges my undergrads go to include my son in grad school. He fit the profile, he was going full time, living home, we were providing over 50% of his care, worked 1-2 days when not in class, so income was low, and it made our EFC drop 5-6000. He is only in the program though one more year and then has a 1 year internship…it will be a hit then and I’m sure loans will be offered and increased work study.</p>
<p>There is no two for one in collegeland…so yes while your EFC per student goes down and not always exactly in half, there are no guarantees that the colleges will make up the difference.</p>
<p>Multiply your EFC by .6, it will not be exactly half if you are at a Profile school and your sibling is at a Profile school. Buy “Paying for College without Going Broke” by Kalman Chany, Princeton Review, this is usually discussed.</p>