Any Suggestions for lowering EFC?

Paying for College
1

<p>My dad is currently a partner in an Equity firm that invests money into buying and improving businesses. So when my dad and I were filling out our CSS profile he had to list under our assets his stake in each of these companies as well as the 50% of a scrap metal yard (he decided it would be sound investment). The stake in the companies is incredibly small but has eaten away at our savings and my dad's salary is less than 100,000. However when we calculated our EFC, the computer might as well laughed at us. Even when he filled out the supplemental form for "Businesses and Farms" it still made no difference. With the recent tightening of wallets both investment and metal prices have plummeted putting my whole family into a tailspin especially when I am about to leave (hopefully for a LAC). I was always under the impression that if you owned a business the money/profit that the business showed would be eliminated from EFC because its not accessible.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any ideas about how to beat the system?</p>

2

<p>Profile schools look at everything very carefully. To be honest, you can't tell what they will actually do with your info from a calculator ... it's not like the FAFSA, which will give you the actual EFC used to compute need for federal funds. You can't hide anything. Just put the info as it should be reported, add relevant comments in the comment section, and write the school's financial aid office a detailed explanation if you want. That's the best way to handle it, I think.</p>