When Delsia Fleming was looking at colleges for her twin daughters, Brittany and Brianna, the Burlington, N.J., mother learned that twins who attend the same school often receive college tuition discounts. It turns out this discount isn’t limited to twins.
A handful of colleges and universities nationwide offer discounts when two or more family members enroll at the same school. The key is to know the right terminology when searching for discounts or speaking with financial aid officers about the possibility of qualifying for college tuition discounts. Some of the phraseology I came across includes “sibling discount,” “twin discount,” “family scholarship” or “family grant.”
Fleming’s daughters ended up enrolling at McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., which provides a $2,000 discount to the second tuition bill. The family received that discount in addition to a generous financial aid package.
If you have same-age children or children close in age who could attend the same college, you may want to consider adding “family tuition discount” to your list of must-haves as you start looking at schools.
I have identified nine schools that offer college tuition discounts to siblings. There are many more, but these represent schools in various parts of the country and offer a minimum of $1,000 off tuition. Also, whenever possible I have included a link to each school’s website for more information.
- Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., provides what it calls a “family discount” for siblings enrolled full time at the school, except those in the general studies program. For some reason general studies students are barred from the family discount. All others can expect a 10% tuition discount for the older sibling. If a third sibling enrolls simultaneously, the oldest sibling gets a 20% discount and the second sibling gets a 10% discount.
- Johnson & Wales University, with campuses in Charlotte, N.C., and Providence, R.I., offers a “family scholarship” that provides up to $2,000 off tuition costs for each sibling attending full time.
- McDaniel College in Maryland offers a $2,000 grant applied toward the second student’s tuition. A third sibling gets a discount of $4,000 a year. The program is available only to traditional undergraduate students.
- Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., pays up to $1,500 per year per family through its Family Grant if two or more siblings are concurrently enrolled full time.
- Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., offers a multiple sibling discount that applies not only to its undergraduate and graduate programs, but also to its law school. When two siblings are enrolled full time simultaneously, each student gets 10% off tuition. A third sibling enjoys a 20% discount on tuition. Got four or more college-bound kids? Roger Williams will give the fourth and subsequent enrolling siblings a 25% discount.
- St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., provides a Family Grant of up to $4,000 for each sibling simultaneously enrolled at the school.
- Western New England University in Springfield, Mass., gives a sibling discount of up to $1,000 per year for each sibling enrolled full time.
Sometimes the siblings enrolling together in school are twins, like Delsia Fleming’s daughters. I found one twin organization that had tracked down additional sibling tuition discount information.
The Mid-Atlantic Twin Registry has highlighted a number of colleges and universities nationwide that offer money off tuition for twins — and in many instances other siblings as well. This list includes schools and their tuition reductions that range from the basic — Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., which offers $2,000 off each year — to the generous, such as Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, whose Twin Scholarship charges tuition for only one of the enrolled twins each year.
College tuition discounts just for having your children attend the same school? Who wouldn’t want that?
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