<p>Your friend should sit down with her dad, and work through the EFC formula on paper. He may be doing something wrong:</p>
<p><a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2012-13-efc-forumula.pdf[/url]”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2012-13-efc-forumula.pdf</a></p>
<p>If she lives with her mother for more than half of the year, her mother’s income is what will be taken into account at colleges and universities that only use the FAFSA. However, she needs to be aware that the most generous institutions will also use the CSS Profile and/or their own financial aid forms in order to determine eligibility for their own aid.</p>
<p>What are her grades and exam scores like? What is it that she wants to study? Where does she live? If her parents live in two different states, where do each of them live? How much, exactly, is her father ready, willing, and able to contribute for her education?</p>
<p>Getting married will not necessarily make things easier for her. Usually, it just makes everything even more difficult. She has to consider more than just the effects that marriage would have on her FAFSA and tax situations. It will also affect many other things in her life.</p>