<p>Hey guys so I'm using an EFC calculator and its giving a high number of around 15,000 which means I won.t get a pell grant.
But I'ts just me and my mom and her income is around 30,000 after taxes. The rent is 2,050 a month, a car payment which is 400 a month, our insurance for health and car is around 700 a month and it ends up that she is breaking even a month. I had an income of 8,000 but I paid 400 to my mom each month for rent to help her stay even. So I really dont have any EFC. Is there any way that this can be factored into FAFSA? I go to OCC which is a community college so should I talk to them?
Last year I got the full amount for a pell grant but thats because my mom was making even less.</p>
<p>There is no way you can have an EFC of $15K with $38K of income. You must be doing something wrong. My recommendation is to use the worksheets in the link below to figure out what areas affect the EFC.</p>
<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/091312EFCFormulaGuide1314.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/091312EFCFormulaGuide1314.pdf</a></p>
<p>I agree with Kdog, but just to let you know, it does not matter what all of those expenses are. They are NOT factored into the equation. You do have an EFC which would be about 1/2 of your income over $6K, or about $1K plus 20% of any money or other assets you have on the day you filed FAFSA. That added to your mother’s EFC would be your family EFC, but $15K is too high. You made a mistake somewhere or there is something in the picture you are not mentioning.</p>
<p>What is your mom’s gross income. With an income of $30,000 a year, there would not be enough income to pay over $2000 a month in rent. Do you receive child support, or does your mom receive spousal benefits?</p>
<p>Something isn’t right about the numbers you are posting here.</p>
<p>Is gross income before taxes? If so it’s around 48 then it drops to 30000-35000 after taxes.
She also gets 800 a month from her bf from living here.</p>
<p>Sounds like you put your mom’s income in the “student section” </p>
<p>OR, your mom gets a huge amount of child/spousal support. </p>
<p>Some of the $8k that you earned does go towards EFC, but only a smallish amount. </p>
<p>I don’t think she has to report the $800 that the BF pays towards his share of the rent. I think the two of them are treated like roomies who “share rent.” His share of the rent isn’t really income, even if he gives it to her to pay. Many roomies “collect” rent from each roomie and pay with one check…that’s not “income” to the one roomie who writes the check.</p>
<p>No I put it in the parent income.
And she gets none from child support</p>
<p>Go thru everything and make sure you didn’t put in a wrong number somewhere…savings, assets, something.</p>
<p>How much did you put for YOUR income?</p>
<p>How much did you put for YOUR savings?</p>
<p>What is her AGI income?</p>
<p>Does she deposit any money into a retirement acct?</p>
<p>I checked I put 8000 for my income and I put a low number for my savings
I put 46000 for adjusted gross income and then 14,000 for the tax part because that’s what’s taken out for taxes
Adjusted is before tax right?</p>
<p>I did a quick calc and got $2689 as your family EFC with $1246 attributable to you assuming you had $1K in savings. So something is wrong with your calculations. Better talk to a fin aid counselor at your college and work the the numbers through. You would be eligible for PELL at those levels.</p>
<p>Yeah I’ll check again. I’ll update once I get my moms tax return and maybe I put too high of numbers.
@cptofthehouse Will the efc change once I update fafsa? Or is that the efc I’m stuck with for the year?</p>
<p>It will change when you update FAFSA. Make sure your school gets the updated one and let the financial aid office know when you submit the new one. One thing, though, you are stuck with the asset numbers you reported the first time unless they were an out and out mistake.</p>
<p>It will be April 1 on Sunday. You really need to get this sorted out ASAP so that you will have the correct financial aid information.</p>
<p>To younger folks reading this…this is why you really NEED to get your taxes done ASAP after February 1 the year your kiddo is going to be a college freshman. Yes…file with estimates, but don’t wait until the end of March/beginning of April to update!</p>