<p>I currently have a freshman in college and a junior in high school. With my oldest, our FAFSA gave us an EFC of about 16K. I am trying to make financial plans, but really don’t know how the FAFSA will change after adding a second child to the mix. Has anyone experienced this? I would like to know how adding a second child on the FAFSA will impact our EFC. Should I expect our current EFC to be cut in half for each child? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance for any replies.</p>
<p>The EFC is a total amount which would include your total contribution. So yes an additional college aged kid will likely result in a great financial advantage. Life is not fair. Having two kids in college at the same time will greatly reduce the total amount you need to contribute. If your kids go to college one after another, you are screwed.</p>
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<p>Considering that the vast majority of colleges don’t meet need, and even with an EFC cut in half the OP is not going to be in Pell range, that isn’t necessarily remotely true. The OP very well could get an identical aid package with one or two in college at the same time. </p>
<p>OP, I would ask your question in the Financial Aid forum if you have not already done so. </p>
<p>An EFC will usually split in half for each kid UNLESS the kids have their own savings and earnings. For example, if kid 1 has $1k in savings and earned $7k last year, their EFC is going to be higher than kid 2 that has 0. However, your part of each of their EFCs will be split in half. I hope that makes sense. </p>
<p>Remember though, AFAIK, not a single FAFSA-only school will meet need. Even with an 8k EFC, you very well might only be offered a stafford loan (5500 first year, 6500 second, 7500 subsequent years) and be gapped the rest of the difference between COA and EFC. </p>
<p>An EFC is the MINIMUM you will be expected to pay (unless kiddos get huge merit scholarships).</p>
<p>If you’re still looking at U of M, MSU, and MTU… U of M uses PROFILE so the PROFILE EFC is going to be different than the FAFSA EFC. PROFILE splits 60/60 it seems, not 50/50 like FAFSA. Yes, U of M will increase their aid package if your EFC goes down. MSU and MTU will likely not change much at all. Neither of them are great with FA for middle income families. Heck, they’re not even great to low-income families (with the exception of MSU’s SPAD program for those in poverty… I qualified for that one year only.)</p>
<p>Much depends on the schools your kids attend. If they don’t “meet need” then you will not likely see much/any financial advantage.</p>
<p>Since your EFC is too high to split into the Pell range, it’s entirely possible, if one/both of your kids attend schools that don’t meet need, you’ll pay for nearly all costs.</p>
<p>Which schools are you talking about? </p>
<p>(and, the schools that do “meet need”, usually require CSS Profile and the split is 60/60).</p>
<p>Edit to add…</p>
<p>It can get confusing because if only your first child goes to a school that promises to meet need (and increase aid as needed), the you could end up getting more aid for #1, but have to pay nearly all costs for #2.</p>
<p>It looks like you’re looking at MSU for your second child. </p>
<p>I just tried MSU’s NPC and put in EFC of $8k for one child (as an instate student). The results kicked out that all you’d get is an 1800 grant, some work study, student loans and a big Parent Plus Loan of $13,000 (in addition to the student loans and $3k work study).</p>
<p>So, COA at MSU for an instate student is $23,240…so you’d be paying at least $13k per year for that one child and your D would also be getting loans/WS.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. </p>
<p>"An EFC will usually split in half for each kid UNLESS the kids have their own savings and earnings. For example, if kid 1 has $1k in savings and earned $7k last year, their EFC is going to be higher than kid 2 that has 0. However, your part of each of their EFCs will be split in half. I hope that makes sense. " ~ romanigypsyeyes</p>
<p>This bit of info helped me out tremendously. I actually have one daughter attending the University of Michigan -Dearborn, my junior daughter who wants to attend MSU, and I also have a freshman boy who is probably going to go to UM-D also. As you can see, the timing of this can be quite beneficial to us since the one choosing to go away to college will overlap with my other two. My oldest will probably finish her degree in her 5th year. Meaning for one year we will probably have a 3-way split. </p>
<p>Thanks. :)</p>
<p>I had a child in a Michigan state school and had two children in college for a couple of those years. My fa did not change when I had two in college except for a very small subsubized stafford loan. </p>
<p>My other child was at a meet needs college and her package was reflected as having two in school.</p>
<p>Our EFC was very similar.</p>
<p>Good info here. Yes, the parents contribution part of the FAFSA EFC will be halved. The student’s part will be calculated as per individual student’s financials.</p>
<p>But most of the time, unless the students are in full need met schools, it isn’t going to matter, because very few if any schools that guarantee to meet full use FAFSA alone. Then the split is usually 60/60 for PROFILE. </p>
<p>The other time it makes a difference is if the family is low income enough where PELL and other programs using FAFSA come into play, including loand subsidies. It made a difference for a friend of mine when her second child went to college in that it made them PELL eligible, and they were then both able to pick up some other FAFSA associated monies. But neither kid’s college gave much at all in terms of aid, and the older one actually lost money she had gotten freshman year, when some government funds were then available. Not fair, but that’s the way it worked.</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like ANY of these schools meet need, so you may not get any benefit except for merit aid if applicable.</p>
<p>Even when you have 3 in school, your EFC will be at least $5k each which is too high for Pell.</p>
<p>From your last post, it sounds like you think you’re going to get more money, but in truth, you probably won’t get much/any. Romani’s post was just an explanation of how EFC splits, it wasn’t an indication that you’d get any more aid.</p>
<p>As the MSU NPC indicated, you would be expected to pay FAR MORE than your EFC (which would be $8k each when you have 2 in school). </p>
<p>EFC is a misnomer. It does NOT really mean the amount the family is supposed to pay. These schools do NOT charge a sliding scale based on EFC. </p>
<p>FAFSA EFC is really meaningless at schools that don’t meet need. The only thing the school does with FAFSA EFC is see if you qualify for any federal aid…and your EFCs will be too high for federal grants.</p>