Discrepancy Between EFC with FAFSA and Profile?

Paying for College
1

<p>I know the two different forms calculate it differently. I'm just curious, are there usually big differences with the EFC, or is it roughly the same? Which form usually turns out the lower EFC?</p>

2

<p>It depends on the school. Profile schools use the information in different ways. Also, there is no “EFC” from the Profile.</p>

3

<p>Profile schools include home equity, which for many families makes what Profile schools want more than FAFSA only schools. And it also includes the income and assets of both parents when they are divorced. The Profile schools seem to want to find every last penny.</p>

4

<p>PROFILE is not a single application. When you start to complete it, you put in the schools that you are sending this app, and the questions that appear are those that those schools want. Some schools want to know what cars you are driving. Some do not. Some use every bit of home equity, some do not. So you can get a variety of institutional EFCs from PROFILE.</p>

<p>An example would be Harvard’s financial aid policies. They are far more generous that many school in terms of financial aid, and you can get some aid at salary levels that would exclude you at other schools.</p>

5

<p>Federal Methodology and Institutional Methodology Differences…from the College Board:</p>

<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/FM%20&%20IM%20Differences.pdf[/url]”>http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/FM%20&%20IM%20Differences.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Note the “options”…places that school could differ on how they use the data.</p>