Current students/parents: How close was the FA calculator to the real offer?

<p>So I put in the information directly from mine and my parent's tax returns (~$150,000) and came out with an EFC of about $16,000. This is a number I was very happy with, and I was wondering how reliable this has been in the past.</p>

<p>Are you sure you’re filling it in correctly? That seems very low for an EFC at that income.</p>

<p>The calculator gave me an EFC of 15k, but my actual EFC was 19k, so it was off by a decent amount. But I have also heard people getting offers within a couple hundred of the calculator value.</p>

<p>The calculator is as good as the information you put in, so do it carefully.</p>

<p>PS. I got an EFC of 15k with an AG Income of 95k…so you may want to check your stuff.</p>

<p>You had better look at that again, with an income of $150,000 it seems like your EFC should be around $40,000</p>

<p>There are many factors to this and detailed, correct info plugged into the calculator will give you the closest estimation. It seems highly unlikely based on the income amount that the EFC would be so low.</p>

<p>EFC from the CollegeBoard was about 40,000, but the calculator on Cornell’s website projected net COA to be about 15,000.</p>

<p>Our gross taxable income was $162,000 & our EFC approx. $43,000</p>

<p>If your EFC is $43,000 do they give you $17,000 in grants which would be about the $60,000 which it would cost to attend including room and board?</p>

<p>We are in-state & my D attends the College of Human Ecology, so we pay the full in-state cost, which does not exceed our EFC.</p>

<p>@bridgezon- no, cornell will first give you $7500 in subsidized loans and $2000 work study. After that, any balance from EFC will come from Cornell grants</p>