I’m sure I am just in denial, but completed the 22-23 FAFSA for my current Sophomore in college and my to be Freshman next year. Safe to assume the EFC calculated is per child/student? Ouch.
Yes, the EFC is per child when more than one are in college at the same time. Is that the case for you? . But really…that has nothing to do with the amount of financial aid you might or might not receive.
Did you indicate on the FAFSA forms that there would be two in college?
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The EFC is primarily used for awarding of federally funded grant aid and accessibility to the Direct for the student. If you are saying “ouch” it sounds like your EFC is too high to qualify for the grant aid.
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Some colleges use only the FAFSA, but with the exception of University of Chicago, they do not guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students. So…if your student is applying to colleges that only use the FAFSA, the EFC should be viewed as the MINIMUM you will be paying.
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If this EFC is not possible for your family, and this student has excellent stats (GPA, SAT/ACT), you might want to look for colleges where merit aid is a strong possibility or guaranteed. Merit aid does not consider your income or assets.
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Have you run the Net Price Calculators for the colleges of interest? Are the parents divorced? Do they own real estate other than the primary residence? Do they own a business or are they self employed? If NO to these, the net price calculator on each college website will give you a better estimate of net costs than looking at the FAFSA EFC.
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Thank you for those points. We are very financially stable just don’t see how it’s feasible to spend >$100k a year for tuition. The EFC is greater than tuition and R&B at each school. D22 has been accepted to her first choice already. We have been able to swing just my son without loans, but I was just haven’t done enough homework on finding out more about having two kids in together. Thanks!
We have 3 in college this year, we are paying more than our EFC’s, we got $8000 for 1 student, plus the federal loans everyone gets (some are subsidized), but $100,000 is pretty much what we are expected to pay after $27,000 in merit (all public colleges, 2 OOS). ETA, we never qualified for FA during the 4 years we had 2 in college.
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Is your income in the over $200,000 a year range? You don’t have to post that info here…but if your EFC for two kids is $100,000 total, you either have a very high income or you additionally have a ton of assets.
Is funding college for these two kids going to be possible if you can’t fund $100,000 a year while they are both in college. If not, are there affordable colleges on the list for the high school senior?
Can merit aid options be considered?
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Thank you. I don’t think D22 will get merit in state. Thankfully they will both be attending “affordable” schools, and we can fund through loans, and their 529s. We do have a lot of long term assets, so I guess that’s a bigger snafu than I had considered. We’re fortunate, and I am grateful for that, but ignorant to the whole process a bit I suppose.
Is Pitt affordable at full pay for your D? Merit is becoming increasingly difficult to get at Pitt (ACT 33+)…and I’m not sure how much merit there is for TO applicants, if any.
If Pitt is not affordable at full pay, does she have any affordable safeties on her list?
Your EFC won’t matter at many FAFSA only schools, because the vast majority won’t come close to meeting full need anyway. Have you run NPCs at all the schools on her list?
Agree with thumper that focusing on schools with merit aid could make sense…does she have any merit generous schools on her list?
I guess affordable is a vague term. Pitt in state to me is very “affordable”, and I have no expectation that she will get merit there at all. I guess I mean what we can afford with regular cash flow plus 529. I am not sure we can swing both kiddos this way. But we’re ok taking some loans too. I was just naïve to this honestly. Thanks for the additional context.