Like a snowflake, no two are exactly alike. I’m not talking about the weather… I’m talking about twins, of course!
Parents want to be fair to each of their children (if they have more than one). Twins make you even more vigilant – perhaps overly so. In reality, life isn’t fair, so perhaps we shouldn’t try too much teaching them that it is.
I learned this the hard way by trying to make sure that each of my twin boys should get 10 Cheerios each. I soon realized, running around the kitchen to get food in front of them, it’s inevitable that one kids gets 7 and the other gets 11.
Sometimes that’s just the way life is.
Financial Aid Delivers A Tougher Lesson
One of my clients had an even harder lesson. He has twins applying for Fall 2010 admission to college. I wasn’t too surprised to hear that the financial aid award letters each student had received had a difference of over $6,000. You might think a family with two kids going to college at the same time would get the same financial aid package, right?
Wrong!
For many reasons, the twins were not being treated “fairly” or “equally” because in reality, they are two unique individuals who should never expect to be treated the same.
While both have strong academic records in high school, one had slightly higher grades and test scores than the other. Also, the big factor in getting different award letters is that the twins applied to different schools. Had they applied and been accepted at the same college, their aid package might have been equal… but even that’s a big “what if.”
Most families don’t know that every college treats the way they “award” financial aid differently. One college might have institutional funds and the ability to fund 100% of any student’s unmet need. Other colleges with smaller endowments, or public support, don’t have that luxury.
Watching my own twin boys (nearly 2 years old) run around today – one playing basketball with the Little Tikes hoop and the other gingerly placing a baseball on a tee to tap it with a bat – reaffirmed that they are two very different little guys.
Every Student Is Different
Recognize that every perspective student (single, twins, triplets, more?) is assessed by each college based on their individual merits. This helps to understand the disparities in how colleges distribute financial aid (need and merit based).
Learning about this in the Spring of Senior year in high school is too late.
Whether they have one college bound child, or a gaggle of them in the pipeline, parents owe it to themselves to find out how fairly they and their student will be treated by the financial aid system.
And this should be done in the high school Junior year or earlier. This is a potential $230K investment! Almost half a million if you’re talking about twins! You need to be informed.
Some of the tools you can use to bolster your knowledge include:
Collegeboard calculator
Department of Education site for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
