<p>Hi all! I have a sibling in college and using her FAFSA, we determined our EFC. Our income is higher and our EFC is extremely low--I can qualify for Pell Grants. So when I look at schools that give out rough estimates based on income, what should I look at?! I'm very confused.</p>
<p>What do you mean your income is high but your EFC is low? That does not make a lot of sense. Pell grant eligibility is very unlikely with high income.</p>
<p>do you mean that even though your family income was higher this year, you will have a low EFC because there will be two in college?</p>
<p>Do you realize that you have to do FAFSA twice and each will have her own EFC?</p>
<p>So, if you did FAFSA, and put 2 in college, and got - say - 2000. Then that’s for you. When you do it again for your sister, she may get 2000, too. That’s for her. Each EFC may be different if you have your own incomes/assets.</p>
<p>Anyway…most schools don’t give much aid.</p>
<p>So, what state are you in?</p>
<p>What are your stats?</p>
<p>I’m in Washington. We have a high income, but we have financial problems with taxes and other stuff; we are kind of a special state. Our income bracket is fairly high ($150,000).</p>
<p>Yes, I realize that we each have to do the FAFSA; she had a job and I don’t so I’m assuming that my EFC will be lower. I realize that most of the schools I am applying to use the CSS profile, which incorporates different things but I don’t think it should be drastically different.</p>
<p>How can you possibly qualify for a Pell?</p>
<p>And what Profile schools expect can be VERY different. They look at equity in your home, the second parent if divorced and often go over tax returns with a fine toothed comb.</p>
<p>I think you might have made a mistake. It really is almost impossible to qualify for the pell grant with an income of $150,000. Unless you have 7 siblings in college at the same time.</p>
<p>FAFSA really does not care what state you are from. The EFC formula does use your state, but only to calculate an allowance for state taxes. The allowance for WA state taxes is 3% of income.</p>
<p>If your AGI really is low because of some sort of business expenses situation then you could find that the CSS “EFC” is a lot higher as profile disallows some expenses that are allowed on a tax return.</p>
<p>My mom alone makes over $60,000 and my dad makes more than my mom, so I know our income is high. But as I mentioned earlier, we have special circumstances. When I said we are kind of a special state, i wasnt referring to where I lived, but rather the circumstances my family is in right now</p>
<p>So I guess your family has a massive deduction and your AGI is really low? If so, I guess you can take the EFC for FAFSA only schools at face value.</p>
<p>Profile schools will be a different story. They often disallow deductions allowed by the IRS and add them back into AGI. So you would not be able to count on it being straight forward and would have to wait and see your packages.</p>
<p>But as I mentioned earlier, we have special circumstances.</p>
<p>I don’t know what your special circumstances are, but why are you assuming that you will qualify for Pell?</p>
<p>What was your sister’s EFC?</p>
<p>I find it impossible to believe that with a family income of more than $120k that you’re going to qualify for Pell…</p>
<p>*but we have financial problems with taxes and other stuff; *</p>
<p>Owing back taxes and such isn’t going to lower your EFC (I don’t think).</p>
<p>The number you report on your FAFSA is the AGI (Adjusted Gross income) from the tax return. If your tax return shows an AGI that is hugely lower than your gross income for some reason then your EFC may be lower than we would have expected. Impossible for us to tell with the information given. It would be very unusual for there to be deductions that would bring such a high income down to an AGI that would make you eligible for the Pell grant, unless your parents have a business of some sort that has huge losses. Certain before AGI deductions, such as contributions to retirement accounts, will be added back to the AGI in the EFC formula.</p>
<p>Back taxes and debt will not reduce your EFC as they are not taken into account by FAFSA.</p>
<p>Hi all! I have a sibling in college and using her FAFSA, we determined our EFC.</p>
<p>This is the part that I find odd. It sounds like her sister submitted a FAFSA for the current school year and (somehow) got a low EFC. Is it possible that the number the sister used were wrong and at some point she’s going to have to return any Pell money that she may have gotten???</p>
<p>I’m also wondering if perhaps AGI wasn’t used. I’m wondering if net income was used.</p>
<p>FrenchSilkPie…what was your sister’s EFC from her FAFSA? And what was the AGI that was listed? </p>
<p>Is the family income from 2009 much lower than the income from 2010?</p>