Hello, I’m looking for a resource to figure out what our EFC means. I am guessing over all that it’s high and means “too bad” for us middle class folks. I was hoping it meant at least a % of a break for tuition. Especially since my oldest is eyeing an out of state college that will be about $50K per year (for her last 2 years). I was looking for a kind of chart like "if your tuition is X and your EFC is X, you will probably get X in financial aid. Does that exist?
The only chart is running the NPC on each school. It doesn’t always work for OOS schools, especially if she is a transfer student.
What EFC ‘7523’ means if that the federal government thinks you can afford to pay $7523 and since the cut-off for Pell is about $6000, you won’t get a Pell grant. She will qualify for a subsidized loan (up to $3500 can be subsidized, $5500 total), and maybe an SEOG grant.
Many schools also use the federal EFC to award their own need based financial aid (and the SEOG - schools get to decide how to use their funds). Schools that have the best aid usually require the CSS, and from that schools determine their own EFC and base awards on what they think you can afford.
Note that not all schools award need based financial aid, and quite a few don’t award it to out of state students at all (California publics do not). If your daughter has good stats, she might be better getting merit aid from schools that award merit; often it is only given to freshmen so if she waits 2 years, it will not be available.
There are very few OOS public university would meet your need (the diferemce between the CoA and EFC). Use their NPC to figure out your potentail cost. Unless you are expecting merit scholarships, don’t put the schools that are not affordable according to NPC on your list.
Use the NPCs and see if the schools are affordable. Depending on the school… you may get institutional financial aid… or … you may not. Same goes for merit.
Most OOS publics do not meet full need. I know of 2… possibly 3… depending.
Out-of-state universities have the obligation to support their own in-state students first—the ones whose parents have been paying taxes that go towards the funding of the universities in their own state. Your in-state university is cheaper for your kid because you’ve been paying taxes all these years. That’s just how it works. It isn’t a “screw the middle class” type of thing necessarily.
Your EFC is just the starting point. The government may say that is what you can pay, but the schools will likely expect far more. It’s not their problem really to fill in the gap between your EFC and the cost of the school.
Most kids do not go out-of-state because of this. Kids who want to go OOS and who can’t afford the $50K price tag usually strategize to find schools that give merit scholarships based on scores and GPA, etc. OR they stay home and go to an in-state school that is more affordable.
Your EFC is not very high. If you have a kid with tippy top grades and stats and some strong extra curricular activity, you would both benefit from at least looking at the schools that DO meet full need. You should be able to find all of that information here. At those schools, you will likely end up paying only your EFC. Getting an education for $7,523 a year is an amazing deal and with work, loans, etc. is usually doable.
If your EFC is 7523,then $7523 is the MINIMUM you family will be expected to pay (unless the college costs less than that) for college for the upcoming year. Need based aid is applied for and awarded annually…so really…we can only guess bout this ONE year.
As noted, that EFC would be too high for federally funded Pell Grant aid. @twoinanddone mentioned SEOG, but I read somewhere that it’s on the chopping block for budget cuts…so I wouldn’t count on that. It’s not guaranteed anyway.
You would get the $5500 federally funded Direct Loan.
As others have said…most colleges do not meet full need.
While the FAFSA EFC HS some importance…the REAL question is…how much can your family contribute to your college costs annually? That question is really more important than your FAFSA EFC.
<<<<<
aiming for University of Maryland for a BA in Journalism (of course we live in California) and the other high school junior aiming for OHSU in Oregon or maybe University of Washington for a 4-year degree in Microbiology. OHSU is cheap but the degree from UW would position her for a better career (and UW is pricey!)
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
You’re OOS for UMaryland, so likely you’d get little aid. Sounds like it won’t be affordable.
OOS publics like UMaryland, UWash, and OHSU do not care that your EFC for each child is modest. They’ll expect you to pay the costs.
What is the career goal for the high school junior as a microbio major? I doubt UWash would be any better than a UC or another good school.
I hope that both of your kids applied/apply to UCs…did/will they? They’d get good aid at a UC.
You need to explain to your kids that these OOS publics will not be affordable. Have them run the net price calculators on the schools’ websites and they’ll see in black and white.