<p>I did both the Fafsa and the CSS profile, and found out that my EFC is 1,232. I was looking at some of the colleges I want to go to, and for the privates its around 42K a year while for the publics its around 20-30k. However, the two schools I really want to go to are need blind, so its ok, but do non-need blind schools see your EFC? I was thinking that it could hurt you during admissions, especially if you're going to need a lot of financial aid.</p>
<p>If you put the school on your FAFSA they will see your EFC - that is the whole point of doing it. If you don't put the school you probably wont get any aid so being accepted would not do you much good if you can't afford it without the aid..</p>
<p>But do they take EFC into account? Does anyone think that the "need blind" schools actually take EFC into account in admissions decisions -- for ED?</p>
<p>I don't think they do.</p>
<p>It wouldn't be fair.</p>
<p>what you do is dont put those schools on your FAFSA profile before you're accepted once you are then put those schools on there</p>
<p>tim2286, that usually means that you have missed the FA deadline and won't get anything because all the funds have already been given out. Not a good idea.</p>
<p>Need-blind schools that pledge to meet 100% of need don't consider the EFC. Need-blind schools that do not pledge to meet 100% of need may not consider the EFC because it won't affect how much they give you. Need-aware schools (those that consider need when getting to the marginal applicants) may consider your EFC.</p>
<p>With an EFC of that amount, I strongly advise against applying ED. You NEED generous aid, and even schools that guarantee 100% of need may give you packages where you have to come up with more than that FAFSA EFC. Most schools generous with aid tend to also ask for their own apps or PROFILE, and the EFC generated could well be higher than your FAFSA EFC. Also even if the school meets your EFC, you might not like how they packaged it. There may be very heavy loans and work study in there. If you are planning to work during the school year to earn some of your EFC, the work study component would be putting those work hours and dollars towards the school's contribution. And you may not want as much in loans as a school would use to meet your need. By applying early, you will not have other schools to compare packages, and have no idea whether that is a typical, low or high offer for you. Also if your family income is low and your family has few assets, even coming up with a few thousand dollars more can be a big problem, even undoable.</p>
<p>So your worry is not so much whether a non need blind school will take your EFC into account in accepting you, but whether they will honor it fully when providing the aid if they accept you. You may be better off getting rejected if they are going to gap you widely or provide a sparse grant package. But , yes, non need blind schools do take EFCs into account. That is why they are called NON need blind. Usually, the ones who are affected are borderline applicants with great need. If you are a top catch for a school, they will do what they can to give you what you need. But as the funds are depleted, these schools have to manage their acceptances accordingly, and it would not make good economic sense to accept a borderline candidate with great need, when they can get a full pay kid or use the money it takes to fund the needy kid to provide financial aid for a number of kids who have need, but not that much.<br>
As for need blind schools, they are exactly that. THey will not take your finances into account, which in your case can be detrimental if the school is sparse with its aid. They may accept you and then gap you. Taking EFC into account is not necessarily a bad thing, if you are going ED, and applying to a school that does not, can put you in a bad situation if you are accepted but they do not give you what you need to go. You are then not free to apply to other schools, in fact your app may be dropped at RD schools when your name appears on the ED list that is circulated. So you either have to go through a tedious, stressful process to get out of your commitment, or take a subpar offer and suffer financially.</p>
<p>Yeah thats why I didn't apply ED, even though I wanted to. The EFC that I got was from the CSS Profile, and I don't know about the FAFSA one. I'm a little bit worried because I'm not exactly "a top catch."</p>