<p>So if a college covers 80 percent of need and my EFC is 0 then does that mean I have to come up with the rest of the money?</p>
<p>Yes…</p>
<p>Is the “meets 80% of need” an average of need met? If it is, potentially you could end up with more or less of your individual need met.</p>
<p>And are you talking about a school that determines need only with the FAFSA EFC, or a school that requires the CSS Profile or any other additional FA forms? If it’s not a school that relies solely on the FAFSA EFC, they could calculate your expected contribution differently than FAFSA does.</p>
<p>Hypothetically, though, if a school promised to meet 80% of need based on your FAFSA EFC of $0, then, yes, you’d have to come up with the additional 20%. </p>
<p>The other question is, how much of that 80% of need-met would be in loans? If it’s loan-heavy, you may have already maxed out on what you can borrow, in which case it would be more difficult to come up with that additional 20%.</p>
<p>Yes, and unless otherwise specified this 80% may include your Stafford loans and work study. But for very low EFC kids, the number can be misleading as they’re often offered SEOG, Perkins loans, ACG and other grants that are not available to the average student.</p>
<p>Yea I’m not the richest kid think less than 10k a year. Basically the schools I’m talking about are the UC’s and with my calculations with the Pell grant and Cal Grant added up I would still have to come up with 5000 assuming I receive the full amounts and I probably will. I’m pretty confident that I could get some scholarships to pay for the rest but I’m worried about the other years of college. Will I still be receiving these grants? Can I rely on scholarships to get me through.</p>
<p>I’d be looking for some schools with more generous track records. Particularly considering the hard time the UC’s have been having and likely in the future, you really need to have other options.</p>