Can someone explain EFC and what the school offers?

[Mwfan1921]

@twoinanddone

At the time you filed FAFSA, you had to report the rental property as an asset. It’s not that the school is looking at the equity in your primary residence but in your rental property. A non-primary resident is reported as an asset on the FAFSA.

Right, but with that the FAFSA EFC is $20K…is that correct @E_C1? And SCU’s offer isn’t close to that, again though that’s not necessarily surprising. Still could be some issue with CSS profile though.

[twoinanddone]

@E_C1

I’m just wondering if they are thinking they have offered more even if it’s cal grant. Plus the work study. So maybe that’s about as good as it gets. Or they don’t really need to offer more since they don’t really care if D attends.

They certainly can consider that your daughter has less need because she is now getting a Cal Grant.

Say that your EFC is $20k but the cost of the school is $70k. The school is going to try to get you close to that $20k number.

Cal Grant - $9k
Fed Loan - $5.5
school grant - $20k less $9k less $5.5 = $4.5k

That totals $20k. Some schools will meet the ‘need’ without loans so may leave the school grant at the offer of $10k (your example) or even increase it to $11k. The school may also give you opportunities to pay the difference with parent loans, work study, other scholarships (talent like music or theater, art).

Most schools do not meet full need for all students. They may be more generous than just meeting your EFC, but are still a long way from covering all costs.

But can schools consider that you are getting the Cal Grant when awarding your school aid? Yes. Also can consider outside scholarships, federal aid, and reduce their aid.

We have a couple of very generous scholarships programs in our state. If a student wins one of these (full COA), the schools definitely withdraw their own aid that may already have been awarded, and even the tiny per credit state award is removed from the tuition bill.

Financial aid is a lot of moving parts.

[MYOS1634]

SCU doesn’t meet need AND is one of the worst in the country for meeting need, especially for middle class and working class students.
In short, it sounds like SCU is not affordable and they structured their offer in such a way that you’d have to say no financially speaking, but if you take on the debt, not their problem (also NYU’s strategy).
There are about 90 colleges that “meet need”. (I find the post below clear and informative)

List of Colleges That Meet 100% of Financial Need

For those, if you run the NPC, they typically provide financial aid to “meet” what their NPC determines you can afford (which may not be what you think you can afford but is better than the colleges that admit students and provide a lot of loans to attend.)
You can compare SCu’s NPC result with Pitzer’s and UCSC’s results, for instance. Pitzer “meets need”, SCU doesn’t, and UCSC is an instate public university.
Are there colleges that are affordable without parental loans among your child’s admissions?