Will families pay less if there are two students in college? Now it depends.

For years, one principle of financial aid seemed reasonable enough: If you had two or more relatives in college at the same time, the aid formula allowed you to divide the money you could afford to pay among the number of people in town. school.

But on January 1 a new federal law came into effect and the formula changed. a million families for example, having two or more siblings studying at the same time could therefore pay thousands of dollars more per year.

Now universities face a choice: make up any shortfall with their own money, or cross their fingers and hope that families will borrow more or find some other way to pay. Which one will they choose? If only more of them would tell us.

Over the past few weeks I have examined twenty college and university websites, large and small, public and private, large endowments and not so large. Only six were clear about how things would change (or not) for families with multiple members in college.

Another six sites contained factual errors (including one directly under a banner that read “Bring Clarity on the Cost of College”) or outdated information that was so obvious I discovered it within a minute of reading.

In my defense, this is truly a terrible year to be a financial aid administrator.

That new formula for federal aid is part of an overhaul of the dreaded FAFSA form, which stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. On January 30, the Department of Education released a surprise announcement stating that schools would not receive data from the FAFSA until early March.

This means that many aid offices cannot begin calculating fixed price quotes for admitted students until then. And without a final price, it's impossible for many prospective students to choose between schools. Returning students may also arrive late and face unpleasant surprises.

So first a quick word about what's happening and why.

To receive federal financial aid, you must prove your eligibility by submitting the FAFSA.

This year's formula change includes excellent news for many families. One change could make many more people eligible for a full Pell Grant for Lower Income Families (currently $7,395 per year) or a partial one.

According to Department of Education estimates, 610,000 students who previously would not have received a Pell Grant will now receive one. And 1.5 million students who would otherwise not qualify for the maximum grant could receive one.

This is fantastic. “There will be more winners than losers,” he said Phillip Levineprofessor of economics at Wellesley College and author of “A problem of fit”, a book about the complexities of university awards.

But because the law that included the changes was one in which federal lawmakers felt the need to cover as much of the cost as possible by making cuts elsewhere, there had to be losers indeed. This is where the families with more than one person in college come in.

Suppose a family has two children in college at the same time and can afford to pay a total of $25,000 per year, according to the figure provided by the FAFSA and its formula. Last year, that was split in half, assuming a family could afford $12,500 per child. Now it won't be halved, which could theoretically double the annual cost for that family.

So why is this purely theoretical?

It is useful to think about your university as a company. A certain number of customers are needed that generate an average annual turnover per person. If the customers are students – and those students drop out – that's bad. Revenues would decline.

So just because the federal formula that schools rely on suddenly says that many families have to pay much more, it doesn't mean that a school will automatically charge your family higher bills. It could lower the price – or get you more grants that you don't have to pay back.

“Colleges are not in a position to increase costs without jeopardizing enrollment no matter what the FAFSA does,” says Ann Garcia, a financial planner in Portland, Oregon, and author of “How to pay for college.”

In a normal year, you might be able to rely on a college's net price calculator — a cost-estimating tool that schools are required by law to post on their websites — to predict the price you'd pay next year. But given the uncertainties surrounding the FAFSA changes, they are less likely to be accurate at this time.

So if you're concerned about how much help you'll get with multiple family members at college this year, it's best to ask the school about its plans. Did it update its calculator? Does it follow the new FAFSA formula when determining what families with two or more members will pay for college? If not, does this just leave a gap for families to fill?

It also doesn't hurt to ask for more time. Matthew Feinstein, Executive Director of NJ LEEP, a college access program in Newark, is already encouraging families to request extensions for any deadlines related to financial aid or scholarships. At least ten schools have already extended their decision deadline from May 1 to June 1, a spokesperson said online spreadsheet created by Danny Tejadafounder of the consulting and mentoring company We Go to College.

Once a school has quoted a price for next year, ask more questions if it was different than you expected and more than you could afford.

“As always, our team is prepared to exercise professional judgment on a case-by-case basis regarding students and families with extenuating circumstances,” Keith Williams, executive director of the Michigan State Office of Financial Aid, said in an email.

A few points about Mr. Williams' offer: First, even at large state universities, people want to help. Use them. Get them on the phone. Come and talk to them in person if you can, rather than leaving them alone with your faceless financial information. Also be patient and polite; this may be the most stressed semester of their entire career.

Second, “professional judgment' is code for the process that takes place when you ask for more money, or when other auxiliary adjustments are necessary or possible. And if the price in the so-called financial aid award letter seems too high, by all means, go for it.

Mark Kantrowitz, the author of “How to appeal for more financial support for universities”, said that your request would be most effective if it focused on as many changes in circumstances as possible. Has your income decreased recently? Say how many and start when. Paying for the care of an aging parent? Specify it.

Professor Levine, op a newspaper He co-wrote with Jill Desjean for the Brookings Institution, which includes an auxiliary projection estimator that anyone can use, outlining the possibility of frightening outcomes for many middle-income families with more than one member in college. Annual fluctuations from five figures to negative are possible.

But when you look at his work, remember that it is only about helping suitability. What a particular school will actually do is another matter entirely.

“Up until late fall, the people I talked to were still talking about exactly what they were going to do,” Professor Levine said. “The reason there may not be much communication is that it is not obvious that these answers are written in stone.”