I was wondering if most schools use the FAFSA EFC as the amount you can pay for tuition or if they use their own calculation. Does the EFC mean anything to schools?
No. All the meets needs schools use their own calculations. Run the net price calculator on each school’s website to get an idea if your possible aid package.
The only university that meets full need with the FAFSA is University of Chicago. But even U of Chicago has a short form of its own that does ask additional financial questions.
Most schools that meet full need for all accepted students also use the Profile. The notable exception being Princeton which uses its own form in addition to the FAFSA.
The will usually use the CSS Profile that provides a more indepth look at finances and use their own formulas on that. You can use the Net Price Calculator for an estimate, but it is not always reliable.
UC’s will do so for instate students with low EFC’s.
That’s only because USC meet full need and they are super needy no matter what formula is used.
UMich met needs of in state students and they use both FAFSA and CSS profile.
All of the colleges that meet full need use the FAFSA. All of them. Most also use the Profile. pRinceton uses its own financial aid form instead of the Profile. Chicago uses the FAFSA and a very short U of Chicago form.
USC is not a UC.
To the OP: is the real purpose of the question to find out if there are any schools that do not use some information commonly required by schools using the CSS Profile or other forms? A common example is the non-custodial parent information for students with divorced parents (the “non-custodial parent has high income and assets but will not cooperate/pay” story causing student to be ineligible for financial aid at most good-financial-aid schools).
No I was just wondering if there were any schools that used the EFC as the amount you are expected to contribute because I can’t pay anymore than my EFC and most schools seem to calculate a much higher number (almost double) for expected contribution.
What is your EFC?
What are your stats?
Where did you apply?
What is your resident state?
What is your intended major?
In most cases, your OOS cost is at or higher than your EFC. Note that part of the aid may be loan and work study that are also your future money from your pocket. If you think you cannot afford EFC, you are not alone. That has forced many students to look at schools with lower CoA.
^ I mean OOP not OOS. 
The cost for my daughter at Vanderbilt U was based solely on my FAFSA. The total price was approximately $2000 more than the EFC. They also do not consider non-custodial income. She applied ED but unfortunately did not get in. Out of the 15 schools where she was accepted, none even came close to this bottom line, including our Massachusetts state schools. I called the finaid office at Vandy to make sure the calculator was right and was assured she could apply ED using those figures.
Most schools that guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students use additional information along with the FAFSA. Most use the CSS Profile. Princeton uses its own form. University of Chicago comes the closest. It uses the FAFSA only, and a very short school based form.
The challenge is getting accepted to these generous schools, maybe Acceoting under 10% of applicants.
@NEPatsGirl your daughter never received an actual financial aid package from Vandy…because she didn’t get accepted. It’s nice that they assured you that the numbers would be very close to your FAFSA EFC and the net price calculator, but really, you have no way of actually knowing if that would have been the case.
Vandy uses CSS Profile to determine aid. However, if your finances are simply…parents have employers, no busines deductions, no hefty assets or tons of equity or second homes, I imagine that the FAFSA results would be similar to Vandy calculations.
Since your DD wasn’t accepted, what do you mean by “the cost of Vanderbilt was based solely on FAFSA”? The most you could have received was a NPC result…and that would have been based on the NPC questions…not FAFSA.
Someone might be mistaking the Vanderbilt policy of not automatically requiring non-custodial parent information with being FAFSA only, since students and parents looking for FAFSA only are commonly looking to avoid non-custodial parent issues (e.g. the situation where the non-custodial parent is wealthy but will not pay, or a divorce was so nasty that getting cooperation on anything is difficult).
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/financialaid/undergraduate/faq.php
However, Vanderbilt does use CSS Profile as well as FAFSA in any case.
I base my statements on the personal call(s) I had with the finaid department who were very clear that non-custodial income was not used in determining finaid and that given a simple one W2 employer, single parent, no significant assets other than a house, the net price calculator should be VERY accurate, accurate enough to apply ED. I’m sorry, I meant to say “the cost…based on the NPC”, not the FAFSA, but which in her case was so close it was nearly interchangeable. My mistake.