<p>Does anyone know why the EFC for 2 siblings would be different? One qualifies for a Pell Grant and the other doesn't. Not sure why - if it's because one made more money on her own than the other? Any ideas??</p>
<p>Yes, that’s probably exactly it. My son’s EFC is higher than my daughter’s because of his higher income from his summer job.</p>
<p>That’s what I was thinking - and of course she is the one going to the more expensive University! Thanks for your answer!</p>
<p>If a kid has money saved in the bank, too, it will be factored in at 20%, I believe. Income has a greater effect, though, in the formula.</p>
<p>Students have a certain amount of protected income. I think it is $4500 this year. Over that (and allowances for taxes and FICA) 50% of the student income goes to the EFC.</p>
<p>20% of student assets go to the EFC. No asset protection for students.</p>
<p>My son has a higher EFC (4464) than my daughter (3958), and I filed their FAFSAs at the same time with the same parent figures. His income (even including workstudy) was under $4500. He has no assets (I think he had $8 in the bank when I filed his FAFSA) – so I’m not sure how they reckon it. Does FAFSA include the taxable portion of his scholarship money as income too?</p>
<p>Yes they do include the that and I think that is where my daughter’s additional income came from which caused her efc to go above $4,00 where her sister’s is below $3,000. In fact she owes money for taxes because of that addition to her income - in fact next year she is moving back home so she can save some money and avoid any more loans that would cause this to happen again - and now she has no Pell Grant either. Thank you everyone for your answers, it is all making much more sense now!</p>
<p>They shouldn’t. There is a question on FAFSA where you report any taxable scholarships and WS included in the student’s AGI. That is deducted from the student AGI before calculating the EFC.</p>
<p>Did you answer those questions correctly (44c and 44d)?</p>
<p>Mom22 busy girls- althought I am not an expert like others here, please make sure your d who is moving home has calculated what will happen to fin aid when that is taken into account-- i.e., the cost of attendance wil go down, and fin aid correspondingly also changes. Maybe that already happened?</p>
<p>That has already happened, we did put her status next year as living with parents again and that is when all this came up with the EFC, so her costs for school are going down. We are in Florida and we have the Bright Futures program that pays 75% of tuition - excluding books and living expenses - so by living at home again her share is roughly $500 per semester plus books - a big savings as opposed to living on or off campus - which after 2 yearsof that she has decided to come home to save money - bear in mind we live 15 minutes from her University!</p>
<p>SCM, I did deduct the WS and taxable scholarship… so who knows? I don’t care too much, really, because we’re lucky that he’s a at school that meets his full without loans, so either way, we’re covered. I do find it interesting though, trying to understand how it all works.</p>
<p>It’s very strange though. I would print of their SARS and do a line by line comparison to make sure there was not a booboo somewhere. Even if you don’t care too much it would just drive me nuts not knowing!!</p>
<p>Another question on the same topic. Our second child is due to start college this fall. We anticipated that the EFC we had last year for the child already in college would split or at least reduce the expenses so that we could run both tuitions. So far, the FA packages from the private schools look very discouraging for child two and EFC is only 2-3 k less than what we paid out last year with only one child enrolled fulltime/residential . It appears as though the expenses associated with child one were not figured in with child two’s estimates. Any similar experiences? Am I being unrealistic to think that our EFC would be split between the two or split with 1-2k more added per child? The schools child two has been accepted to are FAFSA only schools and they are aware of child one and her school (currently in her second year) via the FAFSA. Additionally, the tuition expenses at child two’s school are comparable to what we are paying for child one so there is parity in comparing our son’s offers to what his sister is getting.</p>