<p>We are filling out the CSS Profile and can't figure out what to put for the following question: Enter the amount your parents think they will be able to pay for your 2008-2009 college expenses. Our calculated EFC is $26,000 but that is way more than we want to pay. Shouldn't we just enter what we are able to comfortably pay? Is there any rationale to putting a high number for the question?</p>
<p>I've always thought this is a curious question since the Profile schools will very shortly know every little detail of your family's financial situation and will tell you what the parents are expected to contribute. It's odd that they first ask you what you think you are able to pay. I wonder if the answer to this question ever really affects the eventual financial aid package?</p>
<p>Keep in mind the EFC is made up of both parent and student income and savings. This question just pertains to the parent contribution. </p>
<p>I think it makes sense to put in a realistic number that can be explained and justified. However, what you'd like to pay, or can pay "comfortably," is often times different from, and lower than, the amount most schools will likely expect you to contribute.</p>
<p>If you have a good reason why the parental contribution portion of the EFC should be much lower, then I think this question opens the door to make a case for a lower number. For example, let's say your parents have high income fluctuations from year to year that can be documented, and last year was a very good year. But you anticipate a poor year ahead because they work on commission, or they received a big severance package, or they just got laid off, then those are good reasons. Or if your parents inherited a bunch of money from a deceased parent, so it looks like they have a lot of savings, but they also inherited the care and medical needs of the other parent, then that's a good reason why those funds aren't available for college.</p>
<p>I haven't done the PROFILE yet & haven't filled one out for quite a while- so for my own info, which part does it tell the PROFILE EFC? ( or are you using one of the finaid calculators? I ve found the finaid.org one to be accurate but we have very simple finances)</p>
<p>I can see easily what my FAFSA EFC was, but I always had the impression PROFILE just was a way to extract additional information re assets/expenses for the colleges and it was up to the college to decide which info they wanted to use.</p>
<p>The problem is, $26,000 is our calculated EFC but it is an IMPOSSIBLE amount for us to actually pay out of our regular income. So when they ask what we expect to contribute - I want to say what we can actually afford which is about half that. It's not because of anything bad or unforeseen happening, it's just life - we live in an expensive area, cost of living is high, etc.</p>
<p>Well what we always did- was guesstimate about $5,000 less than our EFC- we also live in an very expensive area but Bill Gates & co kinda throw off the average income
However-
EFC is not meant to be paid out of regular income alone.
It is meant to be paid from college savings, loans & parent and student income.</p>
<p>We ended up paying our FAFSA EFC for four years- it stayed pretty much the same however, the year we were able to do the short IRS form, it saved us a few thousand in tuition. But usually it was save the tuition, lose it in taxes. In our case our EFC was roughly equivalent to instate tuition, if your EFC is more, than you have to make a choice if it is cost effective to attend a school where you have to take out more in loans- or else find merit aid.</p>
<p>From my recent experience with CSS, the question refers to the amount you can afford before any loans you will need to take in order to meet your EFC.
Please click on the ? next to the question and you'll see the explanation in more detail.</p>
<p>In calculating how much you can actually afford to pay on an annual or monthly basis, you should sum the available amount you are willing to pay out of your pocket, plus the monthly/annual loan payment you will take.</p>
<p>Let's say your EFC is $30,000 for the first year. You can afford to pay out-of-your-annual income $5,000. That leaves $25,000 to be borrowed [PLUS loan with a term of 10 years at 8%]. This loan should result in monthly payments of around $300, or $3,600/annual. The resulting total amount you'll pay in the first year will be $8,600.
Now, don't forget that in the second year, another $30,000 will be needed to meet your EFC [keeping all other variables the same]. That will result in an additional $25,000 loan... so your annual contribution will increase with another $3,600!
In four years you'll end up with a total loan of around $100k, with monthly payments of about $1,000 for at least 14 years.</p>
<p>Of course, you can take a 30 year HEL or HELOC, to lower your monthly payments, but you'll end up paying a lot more in interest.</p>
<p>That's a rough calculation, hope it helps though.</p>
<p>I think this Profile question is the colleges asking you to make the opening offer in a negotiation. Puts you at a disadvantage if you open too high. Too low, you look crazy. Standard negotiation strategy would call for an open of about 50% of where you expect to reach agreement, in other words, if your EFC is $10000 open with $5000. </p>
<p>Really, though, like Dadx4 I kind of doubt anyone actually pays attention to this question. They force you to answer it, because they can.</p>
<p>I filled out the PROFILE for 5 years ( d ended up taking one year off)
She attended a school that met 100% of need
The aid package was always made up of loans/grants/work study.
It always was within a few hundred dollars of our FAFSA EFC, which was roughly 1/4 of our before tax income.
I never remember our EFC changing at all except for the one year when we didn't itemize taxes, that made a difference to EFC, but generally it made us pay more in taxes to use standard deduction. 1/2 of one....
But since they will have your w-2 and 1040 forms, they are going to have all the information they need to decide what you can pay.
They aren't too interested in expenses, after all you can live and eat the same if you lived in New Hampshire as if you lived in New York
;)</p>