Organization is Key to the College Application Process (Especially with Multiples)
Last Updated on November 15, 2019 by Jill Schwitzgebel
Much of the advice below about organization is equally applicable to the application process with a singleton. It’s just that much more important when you are coping with more than one child at a time during this process.
Finances
Sending two or more to college at the same time won’t be cheap. You already knew that though because you’ve been dealing with that since the day you first bought diapers for two newborns. While lots of parents have more than one or two kids in college at once, they are rarely hit with all the upfront costs at the same time, the way parents of multiples are. Those college costs begin the day you pay multiple registration fees for their first sitting of the ACT. Luckily, there is some slight financial benefit to two being in college at once in the long run, although it certainly will not feel that way in the short term.
Your Estimated Financial Contribution (EFC) for each student will be lower than if you have just one student in college at a time. BUT, your total combined EFC is still likely to be higher than if you just had one in college. Therefore, especially with multiples, I strongly recommend taking a look at colleges that will meet your full financial need, or close to it. This is definitely a situation where it may be more affordable to send them both to private schools that meet full need, as opposed to a public university that likely will not.
Begin Together
First, start this process EARLY. Yes, I say this to everyone. Remember, you may need to do twice the number of college visits though. And, unless the personalities involved prevent this, I would recommend doing the first college visit or two together. The early college visits are generally to get a feel for what each student likes and doesn’t like. Even if they are certain that they absolutely do not want to attend the same school, there is no harm in visiting a couple together just for the sake of comparison.
See also: How to Start to Find a College Fit
One nice thing about having multiples together for the early visits is that discussion of pros and cons will probably happen spontaneously. They will each pick up different things on the tour that the other may not have considered. That can be helpful. These visits will help all parties involved to know whether they are looking for similar or different types of campuses. Listen carefully!
Divide and Conquer
After you’ve visited a couple of schools together and have more direction, it’s time for the next step. Help each student come up with the list of schools that they would like to visit. And then…pull out your calendars. This is where it may get complicated. Your multiples likely have differing extracurricular schedules and it’s time to begin working in visits around their schedules. And of course, if you have younger children at home, it will get even more complicated. Again, it’s not that different than with just one student – it’s just that there are more schedules to juggle.
If you’re in a situation where it makes sense, you and your child’s other parent may want to tag team for visits from here on out. That will save you both on vacation time from work. It may simply come down to who is available to take each child. It may be that you each go to different places on the same day. For instance, in Nashville, I took one twin to see Vanderbilt, while my husband took the other twin down the street to see Belmont. Get creative! We learned early on that a particular parent/twin pairing worked best, and so basically, my husband did all tours with one twin, and I did all the tours with the other. Not everyone is so lucky as to be in a position to be able to do that though.
Application Time
Parents of multiples usually learn to be organized from day one. Now is the time to demonstrate those organizational skills. With multiple kids, I highly recommend making spreadsheets for applications and having your students fill in all the pertinent dates, like Early Action and Regular Decision, as well as financial aid deadlines. I’d also include things like Honors college application deadlines, whether an interview is suggested, and whether the CSS Profile is needed in addition to the FAFSA.
I also had each twin maintain a folder that included their ACT, SAT, and AP Scores, any award certificates or information, as well as their most recent report card GPA. That made it much easier when it was time for them to each sit down and complete their applications.
I also recommend making a separate financial spreadsheet. Most importantly, include dates that financial forms are due to each school. And then, I included what the Net Price Calculators estimated we would need to pay, as well as any potential institutional scholarships (and any deadlines related to that). I broke down costs for tuition, room and board, and living/travel expenses separately. That’s important to do, as some colleges will include those living expenses as part of their cost of attendance, and others will not. You want to be certain you’re comparing fairly. As colleges returned their financial aid offer packets to us, I then filled in all of that information so that we could make a comparison, and ultimately, a decision.
Obviously, everyone has a system that works best for them. I just recommend that you be sure to actually have a system!
