<p>The 150,000$ was just an estimate. My father told me today that he makes 170,000. Adjusted after taxes and alimony, my father’s income is about ~110,000. I redid my EFC and it is supposedly $4,171, but that seems way off…</p>
<p>First of all, you don’t “adjust” after taxes. If your dad earns $170k just subtract the alimony and do the calculation. You don’t subtract taxes to come up with AGI. </p>
<p>If your dad pays $20k per year in alimony, then use an EFC calculator, put in $150k in income and then calculate.</p>
<p>and, if you used $110k in the calculation, then $4171 was a huge mistake anyway…you made a major mistake somewhere. Even if income were $110k, your EFC would be at least $20k. but even that’s not right because income is more like $150k after alimony.</p>
<p>With $150k AGI, your EFC will be about $50k. No way around that.</p>
<p>(Ana’s example is using CSS profile schools…which will be different). And, I don’t know what a “federal grant loan” is. I think she means a federal loan. No one gets a federal grant with that income.</p>
<p>Sorry to give yet another false estimate. My father was looking at his 2010 income when I asked him. His 2011 income was 192000.</p>
<p>So, I did another EFC calculation, and these are the numbers I used:</p>
<p>Income: 192000$
AGI: 157200$
Income tax (estimate, 33% bracket): 63360$
Investments/assets/equity: 0$
Number of household: 3
Number that will be attending college: 2
Savings: 0$</p>
<p>It came out to be $9628</p>
<p>Does that sound about right?</p>
<p>No, it’s going to be much higher than that.</p>
<p>ask your dad to show you his actual 2010 income tax paid, instead of you estimating it. And what is the current EFC for your older sibling who is now in college?
EFC means estimated FAMILY contribution. its SHOULD be the same regardless of the number of kids in college. So if he is currently paying 20000 now for 1 in college it should be 20000 for BOTH of you- given that there are no other changes in income, expenses, assets, etc,. etc…if his income goes up the EFC goes up- Down- the EFC goes down.</p>
<p>Something isn’t right.</p>
<p>With only one adult in the household and an AGI of $157k…with 2 in college, then each child’s EFC should be about $25k (that’s EACH)…so $50k together!</p>
<p>Actually since there’s only one adult, the EFC may be $30k for each.</p>
<p>With two in college, EFC splits, but the total when added together should be about the same as when only one is in school. With that income, the EFC should be over $50k…so with 2 in school, the EFC should be halved.</p>
<p>And…if your dad has a good-sized mortgage and he deducts a good amount of interest, then I doubt he pays $63k in fed taxes. the tax rate doesn’t work like that. Even when you’re in a high bracket, the entire income isn’t taxed at the high bracket…only the amount that exceeds the lower bracket. </p>
<p>Think about it…</p>
<p>If the lowest tax rate was…25% if you make up to 100k
and the next tax rate was…50% if you make up to 101k - 200k
then if you make $101k, then you don’t pay $50,500 in taxes That higher rate would only apply to $1,000.</p>
<p>Find out what your dad actually paid in federal taxes…not including FICA.</p>
<p>You’re not putting the info in correctly somewhere.</p>
<p>twist - Federal income tax isn’t applied to gross income - it’s applied to AGI. Also, the 33% marginal rate only applies to income in excess of the next lower bracket, and so on for lower brackets.</p>
<p>You undoubtedly have other errors as well; you need the actual data. Computer people have a saying for this: “Garbage in, garbage out.”</p>
<p>But to sanity check your answers: your total EFC is going to be at least $50K/year, and probably much higher.</p>