<p>For FAFSA it is the EFC formula that divides the EFC. As FAFSA is completely unaware of the COA of the schools, the COA is irrelevant to the calculation of the EFC. Any part of the FAFSA EFC caused by parent assets/income is divided evenly between the number in college. Any part of the EFC caused by the students’ own income/assets stays with that student. So in your scenario both student 1 and student 2 would have a FAFSA EFC of 25,000 giving student 1 0 need and student 2 20,000 need - for federal aid purposes.</p>
<p>However I believe schools using CSSprofile or their own financial aid forms (which is likely in a school with a $45k price tag) may adjust the institutional ‘EFC’ (the figure used to award institutional aid rather than federal aid)of their student in a different manner to how FAFSA adjusts the FAFSA EFC. For instance they may not reduce the institutional EFC by 50% but by some other %. This depends on the school but I have seen a reduction figure of 40% quoted frequently in posts on CC. In that instance student 2s institutional EFC might be 30,000. And/or they may take into account what the COA is for the sibling not attending their school when determining the institutional EFC. Each CSSprofile school will have their own methodology for institutional aid purposes. I don’t have any personal experience of this but have seen this discussed on CC several times.</p>