As far as the UC’s go, I don’t think we know the answer to this yet. We will have two bears in the same UC this year. I expect that they will be reasonable about it. But we probably wont find out for a month or so with the current FAFSA fiasco. We are a long way from full pay.
It is a pity your son didn’t register for alternate entry to NM via SAT. It would have been much easier to include NMSF as an award than trying to a suggest that they could have got it (if they had done the PSAT). I think writing that within a PIQ might just annoy the AOs.
The out of pocket is less than $50K at Harvard, the number of kids in college is considered. I see some hope now. I hope all UC considers this factor in their Financial Aid calculation.
The UCs will NOT consider this. The UCs are FAFSA-only colleges and are not allowed to consider siblings because FAFSA rules don’t allow it.
Some private schools that are not FAFSA-only schools might still consider siblings. The schools that MIGHT consider this are “CSS Profile” schools (they use a more in-depth financial aid form than the FAFSA and have their own, institutional money they can give as grants). Here is a list of them. You would have to call their financial aid offices to ask.
What you learned from the Harvard NPC is that their offer is almost certainly going to be the best need-based offer available. Other schools will almost certainly be less, unless your son qualifies for merit.
Unless you can afford more than Harvard’s package, it sounds like he needs to look for colleges where he will qualify for merit.
AP scores can be used to fulfill some of the a-g subject requirements in lieu of high school course work. For example, a 3+ on AP foreign language fulfills the language-other-than-English admission requirement that otherwise requires a high school year 2 course (year 3 course recommended) or equivalent level college course.
Adding on that colleges give merit im order to entice students to their school who have GPA and test scores that are above the GPA and test scores of their typical applicant. They are using merit awards to “buy” higher performing students to their schools. So when searching for merit, he needs to look at a “tier” of colleges that isn’t as selective or rigorous as where he might otherwise apply.
@AustenNut can you help this family when you have time with some of your excellent suggestions?
I wasn’t aware of that that UCs were not allowed to consider it. Based on following FAFSA threads, it was my understanding that although the SAI doubled, that does not necessarily dictate what additional aid they a school is allowed to award. I was of the understanding that one could potentially request professional judgement for aid as with other schools. I did think publics would be less inclined to do this though.
You’re right! The new SAI index calculation no longer considers “the number of kids in college”, the old EFC does.
We will be considering the private schools which offer generous aids and merit scholarships. I think spending extra $7K to trade bear for Harvardians is a good deal.
Caveat— this is all my understanding, based on my reading about and learning about the new FAFSA rules and I would be happy to be proved wrong. There may definitely be other areas for professional judgment review though — I wish you well!
Why would colleges that use FAFSA be prohibited from considering the number of siblings in college (note that CSS Profile schools typically also use FAFSA)? Obviously, if a college just uses the SAI, then it does not, but if it takes the FAFSA information into its own financial aid formula, it may consider the number of siblings in college (number of students in college is still included on the FAFSA – see https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/2024-25-fafsa.pdf question 10).
That would be great. My understanding is that FAFSA-only schools could not consider siblings, based on readings and a lot of discussion on these forums since the new rules were announced.
That would be the correct tool to calculate the FAFSA SAI.
However, a FAFSA-only-using college may choose to use SAI as it is (in which case, it will not consider the number of siblings in college), or may choose to make its own calculations based on the information from FAFSA.
The net price calculator of the college, if it has been correctly updated, should reveal whether the college considers the number of siblings in college by trying different scenarios of such.
Are you sure that UC only use the information in FAFSA (NOT look at SAI index) and UC will consider the number of siblings in college? The SAI index does NOT consider the number of siblings in college, I’m 100% positive.
I am not sure what UC does not in this respect. But if you want the answer, ask UC financial aid directly, rather than assuming that it only takes the SAI as is.
I believe UC only looks at whatever calculated SAI, and use SAI to figure out financial aid money. Since SAI calculation ignores the number of siblings in college started for 2024-2025 school year, I don’t think the family with multiple college students have the aids they deserved. The new FAFSA seems to benefit the low income families more.
I think this is best answered here by @kelsmom. However, you would almost certainly need to contact the individual UCs to get specific info on how they plan to approach this.
