Sibling in college? The FAFSA stopped counting them. Here's how to appeal
Since 2024-25 the federal formula no longer divides a family's expected contribution by the number of children in college. An appeal is how a family with two tuition bills gets that reality back in front of the school, and it was the basis of several approvals reported this year.
Type of request: special-circumstances appeal (professional judgment) to the financial aid office. Not for satisfactory academic progress (SAP) appeals, which are a different process.
Start your appeal from your real numbers
Decode your letter first. A letter built on your true net price and the school's own figures is stronger than a template.
Decode my letterWhat qualifies
- A sibling enrolled at least half-time in an undergraduate program, with real out-of-pocket costs the family pays.
- A sibling starting college in the same year, whose enrollment the forms could not yet show.
- At CSS Profile schools: many still count siblings in their own formula, so the appeal may simply be confirming what the Profile already asked.
What offices say does not count
- A sibling in graduate school. Brown's appeal form excludes it explicitly, and most schools follow suit.
- A sibling whose costs are fully covered by aid. The federal rule now requires a documented hardship, so the family must actually be paying.
- A sibling in private K-12 school. Some schools consider it; many do not. Confirm first.
What a strong letter states
- The sibling's name, school, enrollment status, and start date.
- What the family pays out of pocket for that sibling after their aid, as an annual dollar figure.
- The combined amount the household is being asked to pay across both students, against household income.
- A request that the office account for the second tuition when it reviews your aid.
The sentence officers want to see
A date, a before figure, and an after figure, in one or two sentences. For example:
My sister begins at the University of Minnesota in September 2027. After her aid, our parents will pay $19,500 a year for her, on a household income of $118,000, in addition to what they are asked to pay for me.
Illustrative wording only. Replace every name, date, and dollar figure with your own. The letter is a signed statement; include only facts you can document.
Documents to attach (copies, never originals)
- The sibling's enrollment verification or admission and deposit confirmation
- The sibling's award letter and a billing statement showing the family's net cost
- A short signed statement from your parents on what they can pay for both students
- Your school's own 'siblings in college' form, if it publishes one (Maryland does)
Confirm with the school first
- Whether the school adjusts for siblings at all under its post-2024 policy, and whether it needs a form.
- Whether the school counts siblings in graduate school or private K-12 (most do not).
- Whether the adjustment is made through income, assets, or cost of attendance; it cannot be made by changing the number-in-college field.
Watch out for
- Expect to document the sibling's actual bill, not just enrollment. 'Hardship that can be documented' is the federal standard NASFAA cites.
- Re-appeal every year the sibling remains enrolled.
- The federal change is a grievance for many families; keep that out of the letter and state the numbers.
How appeals actually work
- A need-based appeal is a data correction, not a persuasion exercise. Federal law lets the aid office change the inputs to your aid formula (income, assets, cost of attendance) on documented evidence. It cannot change the formula, and it cannot count recurring living costs.
- The office needs one thing it did not already know: a dated change with a dollar impact that the FAFSA or CSS Profile could not capture. 'We didn't save enough' is not a circumstance.
- Ask the office first how it wants the request. Most schools have a form or a secure upload, and several refuse financial documents by email.
- The letter is one page, under 500 words: who you are, thanks for the award, the one change with dates and dollars, the gap, the request, and a list of attached copies.
- Decisions are made by each school, are final, apply only at that school, and last one year. Appeal to every school on your list, and again next year if the change continues.
Words to leave out of the letter: “negotiate”, “match”, “counter-offer”, “deserve”, “willing to settle for”. Ask the office to review or reconsider, using the name its own form uses.
What to expect, from the only figures we can trace.
- In Sallie Mae's annual How America Pays survey, roughly one family in three with an aid offer asks for more (31–40% across 2022–2026), and about two in three of those report getting something (66–73%). For some, the 'something' was a larger loan.
- The one measured average gain is about $3,500 a year (2020 student survey). Counselors who handle appeals usually cite $3,000–$5,000 and say private colleges say yes far more often than public ones.
- Large increases exist, but as anecdotes, almost always after a large, documented income drop at a well-funded private college.
- No college publishes its own approval rate, and we will not invent one.
Sources: Sallie Mae / Ipsos, How America Pays for College 2026; CollegeFinance 2020 student survey (average gain $3,497). AidVerdict drafts an editable letter you send under your own name. We never promise a dollar amount. Drafting assistance, not financial or legal advice.