(NewsNation) — The ‘Sibling Discount’ currently available under the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to families with multiple enrolled children will no longer be available starting with the 2024–2025 academic year.
For families with more than one child attending college at the same time, the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) would be divided by the number of college students in the family.
For example, if two siblings were attending college at the same time, the EFC would be divided by two. If the EFC was $15,000 with one sibling, the EFC with two siblings attending college would be $7,500 per student.
That number would be used to determine financial aid by the federal government, state and each individual school.
However, with the EFC and the Sibling Discount being eliminated, the EFC will be replaced by the Student Aid Index (SAI), CollegeRaptor reports, instead of looking at the family’s income and finances as a whole.
Although it’s still unclear how widely these rules will be adopted, Andy Lockwood, a college admission advisor, explains college costs could double for many families that will have more than one child enrolled at the same time.
“So for the most part, only 40% of families have one child in college at the same time. They are going to be paying the same as they did before in terms of eligibility. But families with more than one child in college at the same time, they used to have their eligibility increase. Now they are treated the same way as families with one child in college.”
He added, “The rules that we’re talking about here are the federal rules, but a lot of colleges follow their own rules, their own institutional methodology rules, not the federal methodology.”
Lockwood advised parents to be prepared to appeal their financial aid award to their financial aid office after they receive notification.
Per the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, parents and students will use the new FAFSA form beginning in October 2023.
The decision to eliminate the Sibling Discount comes amid FAFA changes and revisions by the Department of Education for the 2024-2025 academic year.