Financial Aid for Twins/Multiple Children for CSS Profile Schools

[Anonymous]

We have twins that started high school this year and want to be fully prepared financially in 4 years. As of this year, FAFSA no longer takes into account having multiple children at the same time for calculating the estimated family contribution.

It’s clear that we would be a full pay family at every institution under FAFSA and the CSS Profile for 1 student attending college. What’s less clear to me is how schools that use the CSS Profile have been calculating the EFC for those with multiple children in college at the same time. I understand that different schools will have their own metrics for how much they’ll award in financial aid, but I’d at least like to get an idea in who may be providing aid to those with twins or multiple kids in college and those that aren’t.

For example, Duke states that if there are multiple children in college, the expected parental contribution is 60% of the normal total parental contribution. This is the only school that I’ve found that seemed to be this clear - everyone else is more opaque. Even then, is Duke saying that even if you are well above the full pay income amount, you pay 60% amount with twins in college (e.g. this doesn’t apply to us, but does even a household with $5 million per year income receive the benefit of this 60% amount) or is that reduced as your income gets higher? I want to make sure that I’m interpreting this 60% figure correctly.

If you (a) have had twins or multiple kids in college at the same time, (b) would be a full pay household if it were based on one child college, and (c) had one or more kids at a CSS school, what were your need-based financial aid packages like (if you received anything at all)? Which CSS schools took this into account (as Duke apparently does) and which didn’t (e.g. my understanding is we shouldn’t expect anything from Michigan as out-of-state residents in this situation, but correct me if I’m wrong)?

Once again, I understand that every school and year is different (and it might further change by the time my kids apply to college), but I just wanted to see if anyone had their own experiences with similar situations because colleges are so opaque in pricing. (If it’s bad news that we will receive zero aid at many or all places, then that’s fine. This is what we want to fully understand now as opposed to 4 years from now.) Thanks in advance for any feedback!

[Anonymous]

I don't thonk there is anyone who can answer, since this will be the first year that this isn't also a part of fafsa. I am wondering too as 2nd is applying now and 1st is a current sophomore. I am hoping most css schools stick to what they had, but without fafsa underpinning it now, I'm not sure previous data would help much. It will be interesting to see what the response is over the next few years to see if css schools stick with the same sibling discount as during fafsa, modify it, wean away or discontinue (hopefully not).

I the past, the efc was total family contribution and would be split between kids. Friend's kid was at Northwestern, and cost was half when sib was also in college (state school).

[Anonymous]

This article may help:

Does a Sibling’s 529 Plan Assets Hurt Financial Aid Eligibility?
https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/does-a-siblings-529-plan-assets-hurt-financial-aid-eligibility

[Anonymous]

In particular, see the bottom section entitled, "SAI when there is more than one child in the family"

[Anonymous]

Paying for two or three children in college simultaneously impacts how much a family can pay. I am confused as to why this important data point is no longer considered in FAFSA? (Obviously I am new at all of this!)

[Anonymous]

I have a 22 and a 24. We do qualify for FA at top colleges, but with little sib getting in early, her coa is about 60/65% of sister's (haven't gotten sister's for next year yet because FA is later fir current students). Also, income is a little more than previous year. This is a CSS school. You can probably get more concrete data by doing NPCs with and without sib in college. I did that for several schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Paying for two or three children in college simultaneously impacts how much a family can pay. I am confused as to why this important data point is no longer considered in FAFSA? (Obviously I am new at all of this!)

Yep. But for some reason, Sen Lamar Alexander made this change before he retired. Why he felt so strongly and did what he could to make this change, IDK. But that’s where the blame goes.

[Anonymous]

We have rising sophomore twins, both at CSS schools. It reduced the $90k-ish expenses at one school to closer to $55k, and the $70k-ish expenses at the second school down to about $42k. We also filled out the FAFSA and they got just the standard access to loans that everyone gets. Hope this is helpful!

[Anonymous]

We have two and the third one will start fall anxiously waiting. Last year we were only able to get loan $5500.00.

[Anonymous]

Is Duke saying 60% of THEIR COA or 60% of a student's Expected Family Contribution (parent portion)? Because you can have a EFC > cost of attendance.

So your example -- imagine the $5M family has a EFC of $285,000/year. Even if 60%, they are not getting institutional need-based grant aid in your example.

(yes, I know it's not called the EFC anymore, but the SAI or whatever)

Fun fact: the highest EFC possible off the FAFSA used to be $999,999. But only because they originally only coded it for 6 digits.

[Anonymous]

If you are interested in past experiences, UChicago gave us $20K discount when the second kid started college. We did not qualify for any financial aid with just one kid attending.

[Anonymous]

I have twins going into senior year of college. Never filled out the CSS. should we? HHI of $300k at an in state school so reasonable tuition.I sssumed we would not qualify for anything.

[Anonymous]

You can simulate this by using each university's net price calculators. It's a bit of a pain, but just fill in the requested info, first without sibling indicated and second with sibling indicated. It will give you an approximation of aid in both cases. (Not definitive, but these calculators use the university's own formula and are pretty good.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have twins going into senior year of college. Never filled out the CSS. should we? HHI of $300k at an in state school so reasonable tuition.I sssumed we would not qualify for anything.

If it’s a public school odds are they don’t use CSS so ko reason for you to fill it out. That’s mostly for private colleges. UVA is the only public I can name off the top of my head that looks at CSS.

[Anonymous]

As others have said, use the target school’s NPC. Schools vary about how they treat multiple kids in college, but those differences are reflected in their calculators. Also, you can run the calculator twice - once with 1 kid and a second time with 2 kids - to see how multiple kids in college impact your expected contribution.

We have one at an in-state VA college and one just accepted at a highly-selective college. We previously received no FA, but the addition of another kid in college at a private yielded a ton of grant/scholarship aid. The FA package from the private was spot-on with the numbers we got from their calculator, and their FA package specifically stated that they had considered two kids in college.