This is one of the most significant, least-publicized changes in the 2024 FAFSA redesign, and it catches families off guard almost every cycle, especially families who have been through the process once already with an older child and assume the same rules still apply.
How it used to work
Under the old EFC formula, if a family had two children enrolled in college simultaneously, the parent contribution portion of the EFC was divided by the number of children in college. In practice, this meant each child's individual EFC was roughly cut in half compared to having just one child enrolled, a real, meaningful aid benefit that families sometimes even factored into decisions about whether to encourage overlapping college years for siblings.
What changed in 2024
The redesigned FAFSA eliminated this automatic divider from the federal SAI calculation entirely. Now, a family's SAI is calculated the same way regardless of whether one child or three children are enrolled in college at the same time. For families who benefited from the old rule with an older sibling, this is a real reduction in expected aid for younger siblings, and it's a change that a lot of parents simply haven't heard about yet, because it wasn't loudly publicized outside financial aid professional circles.
Where the adjustment still exists
Here's the nuance that matters: many selective private colleges that use the CSS Profile for their own institutional (non-federal) aid still choose to factor in multiple children's college enrollment when calculating a family's ability to pay. This isn't automatic or guaranteed, it's applied through each school's own professional judgment process, meaning you often have to proactively make the case rather than have it calculated for you. Some schools have a formal policy; others evaluate it case by case if you contact the financial aid office directly.
What to actually do about it
- Don't assume either outcome, check directly with each school's financial aid office whether they make any adjustment for simultaneous sibling enrollment.
- If you have some control over timing (a gap year, an early graduation, a delayed start), model both overlapping and staggered enrollment scenarios financially before assuming overlap is always worse or always better.
- Gather documentation of both children's enrollment status and costs before reaching out, so the financial aid office can act on a complete picture rather than a hypothetical.
- If a school does have an adjustment, ask specifically how and when to request it, some require you to flag it manually rather than triggering automatically once both students are enrolled.
A family I worked with
A family with two children two years apart in school assumed, based on their older daughter's experience with financial aid a few years earlier, that having their son start college while she was still enrolled would automatically boost both packages the way it had before. It didn't, not through the FAFSA. What actually moved the needle was a direct email to each CSS Profile school's financial aid office, specifically asking about their sibling-enrollment policy. Two of the four schools had one and adjusted the packages; two did not, and the family adjusted their expectations for those schools accordingly. Nothing happened automatically, every dollar of adjustment came from asking.
Multiple kids in college? Get the financial aid rules in plain English
The Parent's College Finance Cheat Sheet breaks down FAFSA vs. CSS Profile, SAI, and the sibling-enrollment nuances schools rarely explain clearly, so you know exactly what to ask for.
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